That opportunity also exists for any insider with actual knowledge. None of them coming forward is a pretty good indication it’s bullshit.
And who, exactly, is the seller here? Is it the publishing company? In that case they would seem to be underreporting their income, which is a crime. Trump could have ended the NYT if he had managed to substantiate the charge.
Or is it individual reporters? In that case, the publisher is the largest single victim of this dynamic, since they aren’t getting any cash but carry all the risk. They would have an interest to stop it and obviously a rather good position to do so.
1) Apple pays PR company to write a really compelling pitch for an article (maybe even writing basically the whole thing, or at least providing all the quotes and whatnot)
2) Journalist writes the article because hey, it’s a great story (which will get lots of clicks) being handed to them on a silver platter