Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Old newspapers could only dream of the kind of advertising revenue that sites like this probably have." Actually they are struggling for ad revenue hence all the third party crud in their web pages. Many of them allege that companies like Facebook and Google have "stolen" their ad revenue. Some complained of Craigslist taking away their classified ads business. Old newspapers, particularly local ones, are going out…
For newspapers: Ask for donation or promote subscriptions, almost no one will mind, but don't spam us with ads and tracking, without consent. Then we can talk. Unless you honest up, there is nothing we will talk about.
Historically, advertising has always been the main source of income for almost all non-state news organizations, so I don't see any reason to think a non-advertising model would work on the Internet.