My theory is that online blogs and publications tied themselves to social media over the past decade to drive higher traffic, but now need to cut the cord because their traffic is not their audience. It's Facebook's audience, and changes in the algorithm downgraded the frequency with which publication posts appeared on one's feed.

Now that responsive design is commonplace (not the case in 2012), websites can differentiate their offerings a bit more design-wise without affecting usability. Frankly, the differentiation is needed, as people are not habituated to go to the website first instead of passively browsing social media, where the algorithm may or may not surface one of the publication's stories.