Also decades of basic cable. And "the NYTimes" here is really short for "much of the whole history of print newspapers and magazines".

Point taken.

Although the current online norm is to remove all advertising, afaict making NYTimes & Amazon stick out (like sore thumbs).

Serving ads has been the business model of every newspaper for 100+ years. The difference is that the ads today can be used to spy on you. When I cancelled my NYT subscription I added a note about this.