I'm not saying they shouldn't be paid. We just need to find a system that gets them paid, but makes quality news freely available.
I don't think the problem is them not being paid--they are working off of advertising dollars just like the con-artists in the right wing retardosphere.
the problem, unfortunately, is the content. It appears that enough people simply can not be bothered to be challenged, which means be informed. They are only interested in what makes them comfortable, and enough actors have been around for enough decades and survive very well on giving these low-education, low-thought people exactly the kind of painless, anodyne content that they crave.
the problem is getting people actually interested in the world as it is, again, and not simply comfortably confirming what their wildest delusions want it to be. Understanding the complexities of the modern world really does require significant effort from every person. That seems to have become too much to ask for republican voters, especially, and there is certainly a viable market of keeping them poorly-informed and heavily dosed on information lithium.