“For The New York Times, whose net income was $100 million in 2020, getting “far, far more” than $3 million a year with essentially no associated cost is significant.”
Facebook News is hard to find and sends few readers anywhere. What it does deliver is checks, to a handful of the biggest outlets Facebook picks. Local papers that Facebook helped kill get nothing. Once a newsroom depends on the money, it is hard to give back, and harder to bite the hand.