Kind of an interesting form of freemium business model, actually...
In the last year I've made a concerted effort to subscribe to media sources that have quality reporting and/or writing.
Your explanation is incredibly cynical and suggests that people are all completely self-centered and lack empathy. There are still people who will pay for things that bring them value and recognize hard work that goes into a product. It is the same reason why people donate to open source projects. They don't need to. They could easily use the project and be on their way.
It's the opening paragraph.