@briankrebs
The most frustrating thing to me is the news sites say it's because no one wants to pay for news but the reality is they don't provide a fair option for us to pay them. If I want to read about something in a small town 5 states away I'm not about to get an annual subscription to read just 1 or 2 articles. I suspect if all of these outlets worked together to provide reciprocal memberships/subscriptions we would see a lot more people subscribing. If subscribing to my local paper would give me access to local papers across the nation I would absolutely subscribe.

And to anyone that points out that some papers provide an option to pay per article I hear you but most don't and considering the logistics of breaking out my credit card every time I want to read an article is just not practical. Perhaps a service that you pay into a bank and then all news sites accept payment from that bank?