It's not a legitimate site any more once it starts making money that way. You might as well sell cigarettes in a health food store. Outbrain and Taboola are cancer and the world would be better off if their offices were flattened by a meteor impact.

I assert it doesn’t affect the legitimacy of the site at all. Also, I don’t think selling cigarettes undermines a pharmacy.

I may place less importance on “brand coherency” and more on “value to myself” than others.

Sure, in the short term.

The damage to their reputations may cost substantially more in the long run. Doesn't take many "I clicked a NYT article and it was a scam" experiences to permanently sour someone on the outlet.

How many people do care about reputation of a news source beyond "it's mainstream" vs. "it's a tabloid" vs. "it's something random I've never seen before"? I think most people these days don't follow news sites, they click through to individual articles from their IMs and social media feeds.

I cancelled a NYT subscription over their continued employment of folks like Bret Stephens (https://www.vox.com/2019/8/27/20834957/bret-stephens-bedbug-...) and Bari Weiss (https://theintercept.com/2017/08/31/nyts-newest-op-ed-hire-b...). It wouldn't be shocking for someone to do so over Taboola.

It's similar with affiliate links. Make tons of money but compromise your integrity and point your users to the exit door.