The problem with news aggregation sites like Huffington Post is that aside from the occasional original opinion piece everything there comes from an actual newspaper or magazine source. Sometimes all HuffPo provides is a link to the real source. Those original sources require actual investigative journalists to find the story and write the article. That requires professionals that quite naturally expect to be paid for their work.

There is also the matter of local new stories that will likely remain uncovered if local city newspapers disappear. Twenty minutes of local television news is no substitute, especially given how local television news tends to only cover the sensational (crime) or the feel good trivial (cute pet stories).

Unpaid bloggers are no substitute in terms of gathering all the facts, analyzing those facts in at least a somewhat impartial manner, and presenting it all in a clear manner. Of course, at least in the US, people have moved away from wanting news coverage, and toward echo chambers that feed them back distortions or outright lies that leave them satisfied that they are getting unbiased news that in actual fact just conforms to their bias.

“Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations.” George Orwell