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This is probably a really stupid question (yet to have my morning cup of earl grey), but which failing trick are you referring to?

There's a link called "web" on this page that links to Google:

It lets you into news sites that have some sort of paywall/registration requirement, but that whitelist Google.

Isn't that cloaking which is against Google's webmaster guidelines? https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66355?hl=en