Short-lived but well-received
Sounds like that other over-used euphemism, "critical success". In the end, it doesn't really matter whether you depend on subscribers or advertisers - you have to have a large enough readership * income-per-reader to cover your costs. That's always meant rationing and dumbing-down content in the interests of containing costs and maximising revenue.
The problem with advertising on the Internet is that it doesn't actually generate much income - either for the publisher or the traditional advertister (the intermediaries seem to do OK...) - so the traditional compromises have been taken to an extreme: clickbait content and scam advertisements.
I think we just have to accept that journalism is following music down the road to being an almost entirely amateur activity.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
