Web traffic to the top 100 US news sites has fallen 28% in two years. Down from ~66 million monthly visits to 47.6 million. The legacy media business model was already on life support. Advertising revenue was cratering. Subscriptions were plateauing. Now the audience is physically leaving. People aren't consuming less information. They're getting it from podcasts, newsletters, group chats, and social feeds run by individuals they actually trust. The institutional brand means less every year. The news industry spent two decades trading credibility for clicks. Now they're losing both. Data: Similarweb via Axios