NNTP is alive and strong. Google groups includes most usenet groups for example. Yeah, most ISPs don't give out free access any more but just google for "news server access".
So what would be a free news server everybody can access? You should be able to name one, the one you are using for instance?
Google Groups - true, but Google doesn't have a free NNTP server, or do they? I admit I forgot that Google Groups are backed by NNTP.