Buddy, people have been paying for news since the first paper was printed and someone paid for it in whatever coin they had. It needs income, that’s just how it is.

What happened was the internet came along and advertisers started footing the bill entirely while readers got it into their heads that news was an inherently free thing, and that it’s somehow shameful for newspapers to seek income. That advertising-only model has stopped being a sufficent source of income, so the price is now being placed back on the readers directly, as it had been for centuries before the first internet article was published. It’s not unusual or new, but it would certainly feel that way to someone that was raised by the internet.