The etymology of that sense of "fluke" is from the game of billiards. It's when you make a successful stroke by accident. And yes it was a lucky stroke for jou

The etymology of that sense of "fluke" is from the game of billiards. It's when you make a successful stroke by accident. And yes it was a lucky stroke for journalism that the same newspapers that carried their words happened to carry lucrative ad space and sports box scores that were hard to get elsewhere. Classified ad revenue carried a lot of newspapers because for a long time there was really nothing else like it. That was lucky. It wasn't anything particular to the news; but a lack of other options. Now there are other options.