A newspaper account of the story would be as shocking but not so horrible, because it would not be as personal. It would be detached and objective.

A newspaper account could easily occur in the following way. Since we know that the murder was undetected for fifty years, we could imagine, after Montresor's death, an heir to the estate exploring the property and discovering a skeleton chained behind a brick wall that was much newer than the rest of the catacombs. A coroner's report would confirm that a walled-up victim had been murdered five decades prior by being left alone to starve. Perhaps clothing or other evidence would show the corpse to be the long-missing Fortunato. We would be shocked at such a story but would not experience quite the same horror because we would not have the step-by-step, blow-by-blow description that Montresor provides of taking his victim through the damp catacombs under false premises of tasting a type of sherry. We would not experience the horror and sadistic nature of the crime.

I believe that the story would definitely be as shocking presented as a news story.  The basic premise of the story, which is murder based on revenge, would not change, even it were presented in another way.

News stories tend to present facts in a way that is sensationalized.  The fact that the narrator of the story murders his "friend" based on what he believes to be past insults is horrific in any light.  That he was able to carry out such an elaborate plan resulting in the tortuous death and apparent preceding madness of the victim is, indeed, shocking.  I do not believe that changing the medium in which the story is presented would do much to alter its shock value.