My company is working on this idea of Netflix for news, although we are not yet ready to test the payment part. If we succeed it may mean less news media but higher average quality.

ps: excellent article and grateful for people like James and Tristan sounding the alarm on the ill effects of the attention economy.

However, I disagree with his association of new media with populism and apparently suggesting a causal relationship. Populism has existed, and proliferated, well before mass media. It's more commonly associated with extreme wealth inequality.