You've just made the same mistake. Under US law (before Trump), journalists who publish classified info aren't prosecuted. As you pointed out, leakers are criminally prosecuted. Bart Gelman has a copy of Snowden's material in "cold storage". He was never prosecuted for having the material, or for publishing it. The article's assertion on prosecuting publishers of leaked material is false.

I won't argue Obama's merits on this issue: he was as bad or worse than GW Bush on punishing leakers. But leaking isn't as severe a crime as others. Reality Winner and Chelsea Manning are already out served their terms. Obama could have taken the civilian oversight boards recommendation on government surveillance and ditched all or most of it but he didn't.