I have a subscription to a couple of news sources. I'm not super willing to just subscribe to things that show up on HN. I know FT is highly regarded, but the only articles I've ever successfully read on it are those bizarre fetishistic lunch interview things.
There is some sort of balance you need to strike between porous and impenetrable with a paywall. FT is too closed to be compelling to me, and probably a lot of other people.
More broadly, if you're putting a link on HN, it's your responsibility to make sure people can read it. If they can't, don't post it, please.
The first problem is inertia. You need a critical mass of users before anyone will bother to accept a particular payment processor, but users don't sign up if no one accepts the payment service. This is the reason why people still use Paypal.
The second problem is fraud. If someone commits fraud over a matter of $0.20, what amount of resources can you really afford to spend investigating it? A micropayment processor that thoroughly investigates fraud will have to charge the sellers a large chunk of the payments they process, but one that doesn't will be bankrupted by fraudsters.
Crypto currencies have some potential to break this by changing who eats the loss in the case of fraud. If it isn't the payment processor (or there is no payment processor) then micro-payments become viable. You still have problems with e.g. malicious software stealing bitcoins, but they're different problems that don't break micro-payments.
Except it's a sucky paywall for new readers/people who don't frequent the Financial Times. I don't recall ever reading anything on the Financial Times before; in fact, it's not even a familiar news source for me. And their paywall just prevented me from even reading one article. My reaction was to hit the back button and go check out the comments on HN for a summary/discussion. I'm not going to pay for something before becoming familiar with what I'm going to be buying. Their paywall just isn't a friendly experience for new readers.
There is some sort of balance you need to strike between porous and impenetrable with a paywall. FT is too closed to be compelling to me, and probably a lot of other people.
More broadly, if you're putting a link on HN, it's your responsibility to make sure people can read it. If they can't, don't post it, please.