Yes, I've mentioned in previous posts that paywalls for news sites only work if certain criteria are met. There may be more, but these are the ones I can think of:

-Niche (i.e. news about F1 racing that has rabid fans) -Financial (variation of niche, but ones that help readers make money) -Local (without high quality, free competitors) -Incredible brands with strong differentiation in quality (these don't exist. NY Times might be the closest, but even they failed the first time around with TimesSelect)