I think people are still in the mindset that the value produced by a journalist is in articles, period. I think there is more value to be created in the interaction between journalist and audience that the web makes simple to execute.
For example, right now articles have to be the same for all subscribers. But there will be some subscribers who care more about a particular article (or topic) then others. Why not enable those extra-interested subscribers to pay more for additional information about a particular article, or interaction with the journalist? Articles could have multiple tiers of access, journalists could have VIP hangout areas where your comments are guaranteed to be responded to, etc. Or an audience could put up reward money for journalists to investigate a particular topic (this has probably been done already, right? EDIT: spot.us).
Right now everyone is forced to subsidize the "general" interest categories, so we get a million articles about the same top-10 topics of the day, and this sucks. Enabling additional revenue will not come from a different way to treat those same topics but rather from better ways of engaging with increasingly niche audience groups.