They put ads into their mobile app, between every 2nd post, that are literally scamming users to look at or click them, and they still come out negative?! Jeez. If ads are really bringing in so little money, maybe its time to drop the whole "free service with ads" business model and go back to subscriptions.
I would pay $20 per month for a curated list of subscriptions to various news sources. The key word here is curated. If I subscribe to a news site, I don't want to hear about celebrity gossip. If I subscribe to a new music page, I don't want to see Beyonce on it. If I sign up for arthouse movie news, I don't want to hear about Pixar.
We've completely removed the idea of curators because "gatekeeping" and now we are stuck with what amounts to a corporate payola funded by the biggest players in the game.