This writing is so clear and good. I can't tell you how many NYT articles I read where the paragraphs feel out of order, chopped up and there is no consistent flow. This reads very enjoyably.
Now the first paragraph must contain an emotional human-interest style “hook” to rope in the reader, then bury the lede in some random spot in the remainder of the text, in an attempt to keep the reader searching for it, like a slot machine.
As soon as I realize that’s how something is written, I take that as signal it lacks the quality to stand alone and I discard it and move on.
So news sites have become a recipe site? Except, you’ve limited to a single paragraph vs 7/8 of the page
https://www.nirandfar.com/want-to-hook-your-users-drive-them...
The news media has gotten themselves stuck in a bad Nash equilibrium. Guilting indiviudals into paying wont change that. Systemic change is required.
They could always close the shop too.
"We need to keep the revenue coming in these changing times" is not a justification for descending deeper and deeper into immoral and anti-social behavior.
Not to mention, the way market economy works means that even if we'd all start paying for shitty pseudo-journalism today, the influx of money will not make them climb back out of the ethical/quality hole - it'll only validate getting worse as a growth model.