The switch from printed to online distribution changed the game completely.
If you are selling printed copies, you are physically limited in how much text you can cram into a single issue. So, publishers (in non-yellow segments) compete on the ability to create well-researched informative content that will be relevant to a large group of readers. You want your readers to trust you as a reputable source, so they will keep buying your issues.
With digital ad-sponsored distribution the competition is about churning out as much low-quality clickbait as possible. If you spend time researching the topic and validating your sources, while your competitor hires 5 fresh graduates to write 5 slightly different nonsensical articles on the same topic, you will quickly be out of business. You don't care that most of your readers will forget what they read in less than an hour. You don't care that the most clickbaity articles end up being the most divisive. You are now competing for 30 seconds of attention from 10 million of readers, and that's the only way to win that competition.