[jfengel]

It's the micropayments problem. That "inflated fee" would have to be over a dollar to cover the costs of doing the transaction; possibly several dollars. Not only are there the costs associated with the payment, but also the additional code infrastructure, dealing with complaints, excruciating security, etc.

As you say, it would likely cost as much as the dead-tree edition, and how much usage would it get? What fraction of people would ever use it? I suspect a lot of people would say, "I could see giving you $.05 or $.25 for this, but I'm not going to pay $3.00 to read one article. And I don't want access to more than that; I just want this article."

I mean, it would probably be worth the experiment for some major newspaper or magazine. I bet somebody has tried. But the history of micropayments is already a long string of failed attempts. Money just makes everything hard, and there seems to be a minimum below which it's just not worth it.

[everling]

I would gladly pay a dollar for an article. Two if it's lengthy. I run across articles in I want to read in American and British newspapers that I wouldn't consider subscribing to. As a foreigner the majority of the content is of little interest, so that leaves me with no viable options. I don't think I'm the only one.

[bjourne]

You'd also need to fill in your credit card details and register an account with the news site in question. So replying to confirmation mails, setting up a password, and all that crap.