However, reading newsworthy events takes a lot of brain energy, and you can’t sustain that all day. That means if you want people to spend a lot of time consuming your content, it has to be easy to consume content.
Then we have a whole other category of "news" which has been fabricated out of whole cloth for the purpose of selling even more advertising to a vast demographic of people who are never, or very rarely going to sit down to read the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Globe and Mail, Los Angeles Times or similar on a daily basis.
I have a theory that the aggregate advertising revenue from the latter class of "news" is rapidly eclipsing the first type.
I mean, assuming the whole thing wasn't made up (and I doubt it was), I think it's an instance where the news was more than just random celebrity gossip. That case touched on some important issues about domestic violence (especially against men) and freedom of speech which I think would have made it newsworthy enough on its own. From Depp's perspective at least, it was also important to have the case play out very publicly since he was trying to use it as an opportunity to clear his name.
That said, the media sure did exploit it for all it was worth. I'm still seeing articles about it and expect there will be plenty more.
one could also say that when there's a scarcity of newsworthy events, or things to cover that might sell advertising to certain demographics, you get entirely new media things (like TMZ) which are the trashy digital version of the UK tabloid press.
if such media organizations within that category think there is a scarcity of attention, they'll fabricate something new and shocking and hype it endlessly until it becomes a top item.
media entities creating entire media properties/brands for the purpose of reporting about the goings-on of other media entities/celebrities/brands.
it's like an ouroboros of media made from kardashians, hype, fear, angst, anger (hello rupert murdoch).
now combine the above with what I would charitably describe as weaponized advertising technology, building profiles on individual facebook/twitter/instagram/tiktok/whatever social media users and their extended friends network.