It has always been a "people's choice" sort of thing, a least for a certain slice of "people".
Large media outfits tend to hate RSS because it puts curation in the hands of users, and that curation function is what a lot of people will pay a lot of money to influence.
Smaller media outfits like it, because they can find readers without paying money to influence the large gatekeepers.
As blogging has "matured", the big shops are feeling more confident that they can lock folks back in to their curation.
Ironically its the large media outlets that usually have categorical and comprehensive rss feeds, presumably by virtue of being around during the peak google reader years when rss was expected and not bothering with purging the functionality.
It's the upstart outlets that I notice not having RSS at all, with a twitter handle in its place. Pass for me.
Large media outfits tend to hate RSS because it puts curation in the hands of users, and that curation function is what a lot of people will pay a lot of money to influence.
Smaller media outfits like it, because they can find readers without paying money to influence the large gatekeepers.
As blogging has "matured", the big shops are feeling more confident that they can lock folks back in to their curation.