Journalists in large media markets (NYC, DC, etc.) can literally not make a living with their paltry salaries. It necessitates that they come from rich families (ex: Anderson Cooper) to be supported. It is classism. The middle class choose to become doctors/engineers instead.
I don't know how much they pay staff/beat writers, but lots of published pieces are freelance, and people get paid a few hundred bucks for them, tops.
There are a lot of people willing to write for cash. A permanent position as a writer is highly coveted and extremely competitive, which means that not only is it really hard to get such a job, but they don't have to pay much.
Most "journalists" today are starving artist types.
I would argue that "journalism" as a profession is dying. With the internet, we all have direct access to the news. We're no longer dependent on someone's reporter to come back and tell us what happened, and we don't need people in an ivory tower to attempt to interpret or even collate it; we do that ourselves with aggregation platforms.
The future does not look good for people who want this to remain a viable career.
Their ecosystem has always believed they are more important than they are. A person can earn a living within their ecosystem and never leave it.
This report is an example of how their ecosystem thrives on talking about their ecosystem.
Yet I remain even more certain we are much better off now than the Cronkite days when it was 3 networks, a few newspapers and national enquirer.