These network contacts provide $$$ to those companies. They're low effort, easy revenue for them. Privacy for customers be d*mned.
I once met a senior-level dev who worked for a company, they wouldn't have their own app on his phone, due to those invasive practices tracking his behaviour.
It suggests they control very little of their technical, revenue-generating infrastructure.
Which is interesting when the narrative is "The internet is destroying journalism." But another way to phrase it might be "All of these companies drastically underinvested in web/mobile, and continue to do so." (Although the NYT seems to have a higher ratio than most, but I believe they divorced themselves from Google and brought a lot back in-house?)
These sites have to do that to remain competitive.