You can easily spam the browser history using a redirect slide, effectively preventing users from leaving the page. No need for any JS, works even with active ad blockers. It’s relatively common on malicious sites.
And to be fair I do get the point why they are doing that, good journalism has to be financed somehow lest you end up with a situation like in Austria where corruption scandals involving government-paid ads wrecking the entire political establishment and media elites of the country [1].
[1] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96VP-Korruptionsaff%C3%A4r...
lol
I do agree though, on a more general level: it does take money to produce those articles, authors gotta get paid.
However, IMHO, not at any cost.