There was a time when the news arm of networks and local TV was a loss center, and supported by revenue generated from other content, like prime time TV. At some point the businesses decided that news should turn a profit, and that was the beginning of the end. Even for newspapers, the majority of the profitable sections were sports and leisure, the hard news section was never expected to run in the green. Combined with Facebook and Google eating all the ad dollars, networks and news outlets couldn't sustain a news organization by any means.