> In those times, the “free” options were the same as they are today
It was easier to circulate some of that paper though. In Europe, cafes will typically buy a bunch of newspapers for their members and leave them free to read on their premises; political parties would do the same or even staple them to bulletin-boards on the street. Same for libraries. I expect the US had some equivalent to that model.
The digital divide makes it increasingly harder to circulate content in that manner.
In those times, the “free” options were the same as they are today: broadcast news, NPR or the BBC.
It’s definitely a problem that the less engaged audience moved from their local news anchor to Facebook, but I can’t make that about paywalls.