Does anyone have a working, non-invasive way to collect small payments per article that is poised for widespread adoption? If not, I don't see this happening. Most newspapers don't have the balls to require subscriptions because they know they're not worth it. I pay for the FT and could see paying for the NY Times or the Wall Street Journal and maybe my local paper. (The local paper just out of guilt. Local politics goes in one ear and out the other. I'm ashamed.)
This model worked out so well for the print newspapers, it's bound to succeed on the web. sage nod
Yeah, even if some of the more popular news websites would start charging for their content, people would just migrate to other websites (eg. the BBC which doesn't need to charge).
I say most news websites will be gone in exactly one year.