There was

https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/19/24135011/twitter-alternat...

which had startup royalty behind it and a very slick web site that they didn't promote very well. (A friend of mine who is interested in this space didn't find out about it until it was announced it was shutting down.)

I can only guess that the New York Times, WaPo and such were too good to talk to these people because they only managed to sign up third-tier news sources.

I assume it was more about dollars and cents than pretensions. Scroll was plausible as a replacement for ad network revenue, but at $5/month it can't come close to robust subscription or premium ad revenue. NYT subscription is more than the entire $5.