For photojournalists, the movement from large format to medium format to 135 format to digital was never about absolute image quality. It was about several other factors that gave each new format an advantage over the previous format while still providing images that were good enough for relatively low resolution newsprint.

• Smaller size and weight of cameras and lenses
• The ability to carry several smaller cameras with lenses of different focal lengths that could be alternately used for different angles of view at a time when zoom lenses didn't yet exist or were still pretty bad compared to prime lenses
• Faster handling - both in terms of frame rates and the speed at which film could be loaded/unloaded from a camera without requiring a trip to a dark enclosure
• The ease of transporting cartridge film from the shooting location to the nearest darkroom without risking accidentally fogging the film
• The lower cost per image from using smaller film sizes
• The lower quantities of chemicals required per image to develop those smaller film sizes
• Faster workflow allowing shorter lead times between the time an image was captured and the time it could be published.

These are some of what drove the move in photojournalism from larger to smaller formats. The last point is what drove the move to digital. An image could be distributed mere seconds after it was captured, fully developed and ready for use!