People who write about science and who write about it well tend to be specialists, and specialists cost more than an on-the-ground generalist just out of college and desperate for a job in the ever-shrinking print journalism job market.
Broadly speaking, legacy publishers have done a terrible job of convincing the marketers who advertise with them in print to extend their relationships to the digital realm.
Alternatively, I will happily do the job for any government that has a difficulty getting rid of deflation: they can print me a few billion in paper money and I will go spending it like a sailor.