Thanks to a monster investment by gambling operator Penn National Gaming, Barstool Sports is now worth $450 million. For reference, that's nearly twice what billionaire Jeff Bezos paid to purchase the Washington Post and a little less than half of BuzzFeed's estimated valuation.

For all the talk of the digital landscape destroying journalism, Penn National's purchase proves that the medium is far from dead. But Barstool Sports, with its refusal to treat its audience like morons and its related ability to inculcate brand loyalty, can teach the rest of the industry a lesson in innovation.

Although Barstool Sports's tone is obviously more colloquial than that of ESPN, it's evident that its writers and commentators respect their audience far more. Barstool Sports understands that its fans head to the site and its podcasts primarily to hear about sports in a sharp but humorous manner. For other content, such as blog posts made for women, the site has separate verticals.

Despite the backlash that Barstool Sports has faced from naysayers lamenting its lack of political correctness, one of its greatest advantages is its refusal to insult its readers by wading into politics. ESPN may have thought its viewers dumb enough to take their political talking points from its anchors, but Barstool Sports knows better. Outside of a handful of humorous blog posts about political mishaps, Barstool Sports's political commentary is limited to Hard Factor, a "quick 20ish minute news-suppository for people who think cable news anchors don't scream at each other enough."

That Barstool Sports doesn't disregard what its audience wants and commits to quality content has translated to ample brand loyalty. Penn National wisely saw the opportunity to monetize this loyalty, taking a group of 66 million "Stoolies" who closely follow sports and giving them the opportunity to gamble on their predictions. It further monetizes the already growing Barstool Sports while making the brand even more interactive.

This merger between sports media and sports gambling doesn't have any clear parallels to other segments of the industry, but it does provide some guidelines as to how other segments could become financially valuable to clearly profitable operations and thus increase their own profitability.

Whereas Barstool Sports commits to centering its commentary around sports, women's media has completely lost the plot. Teen girls turned teen media into a sensation because they wanted to read about fashion, dating tips, and celebrity gossip. So when Teen Vogue decided to start writing instead about eliminating capitalism and "how to masturbate if you have a penis," its viewership collapsed to the point that now only one out of every 20 viewers is an actual teenager.

The same story is happening in adult women's media, just in slower motion — with individual bloggers decentralizing audiences.

Political media have their own problem — not because they're too political, but rather because they've forgotten to service their readers. Beltway items deserve coverage, but cable news and major media sites have satisfied themselves with lazy coverage that involves shorthand versions of some stories and completely ignoring other stories. More importantly, Barstool Sports understands the importance of laughing with its audience, not at them.

Digital doesn't spell doomsday for the media. But for companies to survive, they need to take a page from Barstool Sports's playbook and start writing for their audiences instead of infantilizing them.