All in all, I was surprised/impressed that he was willing to acknowledge that he's been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the media disintermediation he helpe

All in all, I was surprised/impressed that he was willing to acknowledge that he's been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the media disintermediation he helped to bring about, in many ways - and now he's finally seeing a backlash from it. The standard point about clickbait and the Buzzfeedication of media is a reasonable one, but until stories / media can earn online by maximizing for something other than CPM, this will continue. I don't have any solution, just acknowledging the problem.