I don't think the news orgs realize that they are now, to Facebook and Apple, developers. This relationship, therefore, isn't new for the tech industry. There's lots of prior art. 

Yes platform vendors need developers because they need apps. 

But they don't need any individual developer. 

One thing I've learned after many years trying to be a developer for corporate platforms is that people don't listen to their friends, they listen to their competitors. 

So if the news people think they have any leverage over the platform vendors, I suspect they will be surprised.

The only hope they have is to own their distribution system.

No, I still don't think it's too late. But it is later. And eventually it will be too late. 

PS: To be clear, I don't mean that the are literally app developers, I mean they play the role of app developers in the news ecosystem as configured by Facebook and Apple.