You can still make money publishing on the Internet. I despair of it for generic commodity content at non spam scales, but half of my SEO buddies are essentially niche publishers. (I probably can't name specific niches, but let's say "Christmas cookies" or "green DIY household projects" or "classic bicycle parts" for rough example of the scale.)
My business is niche publishing if you squint at it: I compete directly with Scholastic Publishing on one very narrow product category, bury them at it, and monetize with ads for a related niche software product.
My business is niche publishing if you squint at it: I compete directly with Scholastic Publishing on one very narrow product category, bury them at it, and monetize with ads for a related niche software product.