If you consume listicles and you like them that's value enough. (Buzzfeed)

If you enjoy crosswords, new recipes, or product reviews, that also has some value people are willing to pay for. (NYT)

Historically, journalism has mostly been finding out about what cross-subsidy works, whether that's real estate, sports, scandalous gossip, etc. that people will actually pay for. There isn't a whole lot of people paying for just the main stories for the news.