Joseph Teasdale, head of tech on Enders Analysis’ media team, told Press Gazette the problem was “Vice never figured out a model at all”.

“Vice had a pitch – we know how to engage young people – but they never found a way to turn that pitch into a business,” Teasdale said.

“They tried digital advertising, sponsored content, creative agency work, TV production, but continually missed revenue targets and never hit sustained profitability.”

Teasdale added that Vice, in common with Buzfeed, had believed that their online content businesses would scale in a manner similar to the software and platform successes of the last decade.

"The issue with Vice and all similar websites is that they never really worked out a business model for free online journalism," Joseph Teasdale, head of technology at Enders Analysis, told the BBC.

Websites like Vice came along at the same time as the first dotcom boom was in its infancy and technology start-ups were springing up.

"There was a tendency at the time to treat everything like software, where you do your investment up front, attract a bunch of users, and then eventually when you're big enough you become incredibly profitable," he said.

"But it turns out content doesn't work like that - if you want people to keep coming back to your website, or to reach new people in new markets, you have to keep spending to make new content."

And some of Vice's content was "pretty expensive journalism", Mr Teasdale said, involving global trips.

Joseph Teasdale at Enders Analysis says: “The priority has to be rebuilding the advertising side of things.

“Yaccarino has the right CV to patch up relationships with large advertisers who’d rather their media buys didn't come with a side of drama.”

He added “Twitter needs someone to steady the ship and reassure advertisers. That’s much more important than what a few crazies think about Yaccarino’s loyalty to the New World Order.”

“I wouldn’t want to be chief executive under such a regime,” says Teasdale at Enders Analysis. “The risk is you get all of the blame with none of the power.”

He adds: “Musk will still be the owner, and I expect he will be as interventionist and unpredictable as ever.”

Disney's fight for the streaming crown causes further problems: With this focus, Disney reaches fewer people through other channels such as TV or cinema, which are important for branding, especially for families, says François Godard, analyst at London-based consulting firm Enders Analysis. "Disney not only needs to make its streaming service profitable, but also draw attention to its iconic content to feed theme parks and merchandising, for example."

Media analyst Claire Enders said news channels rarely made a profit but this was not the objective for owners such as Saudi Arabia.

She said that the state had been watching the media strategy of Qatar — including its acquisition of sports rights — and was in effect using the same playbook.

“Al Jazeera helped normalise Qatar. Saudi has unlimited resources to invest in a similar media strategy to legitimise their position in the world and help them access people. A news channel is part of a wider multibillion-dollar media strategy.”

Karen Egan at Enders Analysis said: “The downward financial spiral of Three UK and Vodafone to an extent is signalling that the market is overcrowded and cannot support four nationwide players at these revenue levels and with an expanding cost base.”