That's how it is for the average writer in digital media. Small daily articles keep the lights on and fund bigger investigative articles and feature content.
I've been in some newsrooms where this becomes a slippery slope... they're saying the small daily articles are just there to fund the rest, but those get sensationalized headlines, misleading social images... but it's okay because it's just paying for the real journalism... which somehow just never seems to get prioritized.