The decline of newspaper journalism has long been observed. Readership has declined and along with it, salaries and talent. AI looks to be the final nail in the coffin. Nobody cares about fake articles in Chicago Sun-Times and Philadelphia Inquirer because nobody reads them at all. You've got a skeleton crew managing the decline of a barely profitable institution with shrinking staff and declining YOY revenues for going on two decades.
It used to be a staple of society to read the paper. Everyone read the paper. We read the feed now, and it's been that way for some time.