WSJ wants to have a paywall but doesn't want to lose inbound google news traffic so they allow incoming traffic from google (probably they have the theory that you'll come for one article, see ads for other articles you'd like to read, and sign up. Given how web-clueless most people are it's not a terrible theory). I think they also feel that being left out of "the conversation" in favor of AP or Buzzfeed is worse than losing a bit of revenue.
Probably a bit of referrer-fu would work too but I rarely find the wsj worth reading so couldn't be bothered to see what they check for.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/paywall-pass/
Basically just messes with the referer on an automatic basis for a few websites.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11659278
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/10/business/dealbook/lending-...