What we need is a central payment body that we can 'subscribe' to and then select the websites with paywalls we want access to.

Then its a) easy to manage your budget as it's one payment per month/six/yearly, and b) reduces reader friction, as a SAML/oAuth type logon can be performed when you click through the paywall notice on your selected news sites.

All that needs to happen is for someone to stand up and be the payment body, and for a critical mass of news sites to sign up.

Doesn't seem that hard really.