They read stuff written by people who've been working on the story for 6 months, or 30 years building their list of contacts and their knowledge of a field. I

They read stuff written by people who've been working on the story for 6 months, or 30 years building their list of contacts and their knowledge of a field. I read a lot and 99% is not what you describe. Also, the difference between drugs and well-researched news stories is their perceived value. People perceive drugs to be of a high price and don't mind paying that price--especially when the drug has a patent. The same is not true for well-researched news stories: while there may be a niche customer segment that will pay for it, most folks that read news do not perceive the well-researched news stories to be of significant monetary value. The choice for newspapers then is to keep sinking money on expensive researched studies or adjust to a model which better addresses the needs of their customers, even if it means letting go folks.