> moving classifieds online lost newspapers a whole lot of money

I was part of the online division of a newspaper. Online classifieds did lose them money, but for my company at least, moving them online was an effort to stop losing all of the money from them.

> you are the automation that came in their stead

Sure. We hired fewer people to answer phones for managing their classified ads, but we hired more people to moderate the site and make sure people weren't posting obscene stuff. And it also employed a handful of software developers.

I'm not convinced it was a total loss. I can't speak to the quality journalism part though