I get stock quotes with 15 minute delay. If I want real time, I am charged 2 cents. At the end of the month all the 2 cent charges are summed and added to my monthly fee.
News sites could easily do something similar
I still view the internet as something that should be free and any transaction pisses me off. No matter how cheap it is I will avoid having to pay unless one of the conditions are met:
- I really need the article in question
- It's something substantial that I really think is worth money (e.g. a book)
For example, if I spend 2 cent on an article that turns out to be clickbait I will be royally pissed. Which I acknowledge is totally absurd because 2 cents affects my financial situation in no way whatsoever. But this is not how it feels to me. Logically I shouldn't even think about it at all, it's not worth even thinking about. But this is not how this works.
I'm pretty sure that people dealing with stocks are generally less bothered having to deal in stuff because they are in the middle of the economic model (it makes them money as well as takes it) whereas I'm purely at the end of it, only spending.