Why did newspaper publishers develop online editions ar the turn of the 21st century?

Essentially, they are losing both their circulation and their advertising income. It is expensive to print newspapers and magazines that have to be thrown away because they are not sold, and more and more advertisers are moving to web advertising because they feel they can reach a more targeted audience if they advertise on a well-known Rugby site than if they advertise in a newspaper where only one half of one percent of the readership even knows what rugby is. Newspapers, and the power they once had to influence important people, are sadly going the way of the buggy whip.