> NYTimes is primarily ad supported, of course they were paid to publish it.

This is not true.

"The company said on Thursday that it added 157,000 net digital-only subscriptions in the fourth quarter of the year, pushing overall subscription revenue to more than $1 billion for the year. Subscription revenue now accounts for 60 percent of the company’s total revenue."

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/08/business/new-york-times-c...