In .de, SZ, Zeit and Spiegel appear to do tolerably. (I subscribe to the first of the three.) Two of them charge real money, though, and perhaps the third too, I wouldn't know.
The Germans have a proverb for this. Wer zahlt, schafft an. Liberally translated: Who pays, decides what's paid for.
The debased version being, "Who has the gold, makes the rules." (http://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/01/11/has-gold/)
Sometimes in gloomier moments, I am reminded of the gap between the two.
Also, most successful smaller media publishers who are not purely ad-based have diversified into other areas.TidBITS is a smaller operation and can pay some salaries, but they supplement with their fantastic book business too. They diversify and have built what they can sustain
I've actually drifted off it in the past few years largely as I'm simply not tracking Linux-related stuff all that closely any more. Though for that, LWN is absolutely excellent. It's certainly seen numerous other contenders buried.