These sites aren't a legacy of the dial up era. They were relatively recently introduced (circa 2017) to more efficiently deliver vital information during natural disasters. They're a reaction to the bloated nature of their primary homepages.
Wow. I've just used text.npr.org and I've realized that I forgot just how fast a website can be. Even on a current gen S21+ Ultra I've had the habit of "zoning" out for the few moments that I'm expecting a news website to load for. Thanks for the link!
https://www.poynter.org/tech-tools/2017/text-only-news-sites...