Actually I would argue that free newspapers were the death of traditional journalism, eventually followed by the race to the lowest common denominator by generally younger generations fixated on banter, social media and reality TV.
The problem with the 'information model' is that everyone tries to access information as cheaply as possible (see talk here about streams, and appeals for people to copy paid content onto the forum). That means there is no business case for paying a traditional newsroom unless you can offer a unique selling point.
Membership sites are one model - quite successful so far for the Guardian, for example. And presumably The Athletic have done their sums.
Clickbait and outrageous plagiarism à la Daily Hate and the paper that shall not be mentioned are the other model, where you attempt to gain audience, pay peanuts for kids who will rewrite stories picked up elsewhere or taken from news agencies and attempt to be as controversial as possible.
Otherwise you are relying on personal sites like this one, Toffeeweb, and random blogs, which however attractive they might be or how well-run and -produced are in no way journalism.
Bah humbug...
