The problem I have with news sites is that in-general, news sites are extremely hard to cancel subscriptions to. Even piracy sites that offer "donation benefits" are usually non-recurring or easily-cancelled. Even though I can easily afford to pay for the New York Times or Wall Street Journal, in-practice, I refuse because I know that cancellation is going to be an extremely arduous activity that isn't going to be fun, if I don't like it. Heck, I've seen pirate or sketchy sites (e.g., private forums, book clubs, file hosts) in entirely different languages (e.g., Chinese) that are easier to cancel than old-world journalism.
I've tried to support "traditional journalism gone digital" too! I paid for a subscription to Ars Technica once, but the website kept logging me out, so I needed an ad-blocker anyways. They also said they would send me a free WIRED subscription, but they sent me Sports Illustrated for a year. I tried to subscribe to The Atlantic, and after I paid, I learned I somehow signed up for a digital version that still included ads, because ad-free was a subscription offer that was limited and had to be specifically clicked on (the general site subscription wasn't the same as the ad-free one).
I want to support journalism! I give out $100ish a-month in pixiv fanbox subscriptions and patreon subscriptions. But I'm not going to give any payment information to sketchy sites that just make it impossible to cancel and have terrible experiences. It's not worth paying for the hassle of that.