I don't know what the future holds, but traditional "newspapers" and "magazines" died once in print, and now they're dying again online. Big entertainment is also struggling. Things are happening. AI and social media will fill this void. Somehow. But I don't think the result will be superior, in fact things keep getting worse all the time, we get more quantity, less quality, more fragmentation, less alignment. Entropy creeping up. I see how technology is progressing and often wonder if this is why the skies look empty.
I think the subscription is only required if you want to read their newsletter ("Command Line") -- or articles from it.