I guess that’s my question: is it working for them? It’s profitable to buy a media company and slowly drive it into the ground?

I guess? If you're spending less than you're making, leveraging its real estate, etc. The thing that I struggle to understand is why that's better than just doing what needs doing to make and keep it profitable. Like you're not going 10x with any of it, but you don't HAVE to kill it to make money.