I think the Google article is backward. Google didn't decide to freeload on media companies. Media companies pressured Google to change its algorithms to favor "official" media sources. This is one of the things that killed off blogging. Blogs used to score very high on search because they were frequently updates, keyword rich, had lots of links, and frequently had the best information. Blogs (and Substacks) have been heavily downgraded in favor of the NYT and the like.
I think the Google article is backward. Google didn't decide to freeload on media companies. Media companies pressured Google to change its algorithms to favor "official" media sources. This is one of the things that killed off blogging. Blogs used to score very high on search because they were frequently updates, keyword rich, had lots of links, and frequently had the best information. Blogs (and Substacks) have been heavily downgraded in favor of the NYT and the like.