I'm an independent freelance journalist and I've been closely watching the new blockchain projects that are trying to do just this (Civil is most interesting to me; but others I'm watching are DNN, PUBLIC on the DECENT network, Po.et, and of course--Steemit). I hadn't heard of the way Lighting Network might allow this--thanks for your post, and I'll read into it. From the startups I've researched, Po.et seems closest to what you're describing. It would allow existing publishers to use a plugin to their CMS, or even Wordpress, to publish content to the po.et blockchain, which has a token called POE. I've written a bit more about all these j-blockchain projects here: http://wampumweek.com/2018/03/04/might-blockchain-tech-disrupt-media-lets-take-look-journalism-blockchain-startups/