Forward to the Past

"To understand the future of post-advertising media, let's briefly consider its past. During a period of the early 19th century known as the 'party press' era, newspapers relied on patrons. Those patrons were political parties (hence 'party press') that handed out printing contracts to their favorite editors or directly paid writers to publish vicious attacks against rivals.
"That era's journalism was hyper-political and deeply biased. But some historians believe that it was also more engaging. 

Derek Thompson at The Atlantic argues that future journalism will return to nineteenth-century practices.