As a former journalist, I find it funny that Apple doesn't have an ad-supported free Music tier but does have an ad-supported free newspaper tier.
But that's because the publishing industry largely runs on a free-to-the-reader, ad-supported model these days. And the music industry ... doesn't. Apple can't just go giving away people's music for free; it can, however, provide an app which collates and collects other already otherwise free news sources. Nothing that's free in Apple News is something you'd have to pay for anywhere else.