This is partially true.
The primary goal of advertising is to place your message in front of people who are willing to buy (or whom you can convince they should become willing to buy) the product you sell.
There are two ways to do this: (1) targeted marketing and (2) mass marketing. The former aims at a segment with given interests (e.g. motorcycling) and aims at attracting people in this segment that have a higher than average interest in purchasing your product (e.g. motorcycles). The latter is based on the theory that if you broadcast your pitch to enough people long enough and loud enough, somebody will eventually take the bait.
The problem with targeted marketing is that a significant percentage of the people who click on hyperlinks based on Google searches are actually involved in comparison shopping with a goal of making a near term purchase, while most people who buy a specific publication (e.g. motorcycle magazine) are not. Coupled with a far lower cost to reach those individuals via. search engines as opposed to four color ads, and the targeted marketing option has been taken away from the Newsers.
The situation is even more grim for mass marketing as audiences plummet, people dump subscriptions, and hit mute buttons on remote controls.
That is the primary reason underlying continuing demise the newser business ... they just can't compete effectively in selling either targeted markets or mass markets to advertisers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wanamaker
John Wanamaker (July 11, 1838 – December 12, 1922) was a United States merchant, religious leader, civic and political figure, considered by some to be the father of modern advertising and a “pioneer in marketing.”
Popular saying illustrating how difficult it was to reach potential customers using traditional advertising is attributed to John Wanamaker: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.”