I have seen no reliable studies that look at just how much of Facebook's engagement is actually going to traditional newspapers, but it's probably much lower than what we think. So, let's assume that 2% of Facebook's total activity in the US goes to newspapers in a comparable way to how we would define it in the past.

Now we are down to $300 million... See more

One argument is that pre-internet, journalists had a more reliable source of revenue, enabling them to do more investigative work, and the business model shift to online advertising meant they'd now have to produce popular pieces more frequently.

That meant there were three strategies available to media companies looking to survive on the Internet. First, cater to Google. This meant a heavy emphasis on both speed and SEO, and an investment in anticipating and creating content to answer consumer questions. Or you could cater to Facebook, which meant a heavy emphasis on click-bait and human i... See more