For me the big problem is the closed feed-back loop between the journalists and their readership that is mediated by money.
Journalists need money to live, they get those money from people reading their pieces, hence they need to adapt their writing to maximize the number of people reading what they write.

It's kind of a Dutch auction with respect to quality because the bulk of the readership is interested in Bieber and Kardashian news. Thus the journalists battle to be THE BEST at exercising the worst instincts and the reptilian brain and the amygdala of as many people as possible.

Here is where a system like Steem, based on a "reward pool" from which the journalists are paid can help. But in order to not reproduce the same "spiral to the bottom" mechanics you need to have the reward pool being distributed based on how close an article is to a "Constitution of Quality".

Whatever we say the whole idea of "my opinion is as good as yours" is scientifically-provable to be bonkers. Your opinion is provably better than mine because you are smarter, better educated, more knowledgeable and I'm a stupid guy with the IQ of a cobblestone. The only thing we have in common is that we belong to the same species, but our cells harbour completely different gene combinations.

Thus AUTHORITY. You are an authority and I am not. You are entitled to say that "that content" is of higher quality based on clear criteria. And I should take it from you, because you DO know better.

This current era of "we are all equally bright and valuable and our opinions cannot be ranked in any way" is ruining the society. When push comes to shove, in order to advance, respond to a challenge or threat, make progress, if you say "to the right" and I say "to the left" there has to be some structure that says : "when in disagreement on THIS topic, your opinion prevails". And maybe on THAT topic it will be my opinion, and that's ok.

But if the journalists' bread depends on selling as much copy as possible then you are going to select the journalists that can write for the greater number, and the greater number wants to read about Bieber and Kardashian.

To sum up: reward pool distributed according to a "Constitution of Quality Journalism" (to the elaboration of which even the Kardashian-loving masses can be invited to participate)