If there was a privacy preserving micropayment system that charged pennies for per news article across a wide variety of news sources, I'd sign up immediately. But what I don't want is a micropayment system that just turns into a big tracking system to track my reading habits across a wide variety of news sources.

I've been waiting for that kind of option for years. Decades even! But the reigning paradigm among all businesses these days seems to be subscription-based recurring revenue, so I'm not holding my breathe.

Here is the article: https://archive.is/UOrkU

And you can pay here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/archive.today

that would actually make sense. Just be able to buy today's newspaper.

Same would be interesting for weekly magazines. Like... occasionally I'm interested in a magazine, but I just want like 1 edition because it has something that caught my attention

A paper copy is $5 at the gas station or the grocery store. I buy one once in a while and would rather do that then pay $1 online and be tracked.

I certainly won't be signing up for a subscription that makes it harder to cancel than to sign up.

Also it's good to be reminded once in a while how badly being online has destroyed my ability to concentrate, which is what happens when I sit down to read an actual newspaper.

There is a publication in India (The Ken) that allows you to buy a single article. But the cost of a single article is so high, it's not really worth it. It's 1/6th of the price of their annual subscription. The idea is to discourage single article buys and push a customer towards an annual subscription because it's a much better value. Classic pricing technique. Of course they are a business and they have to maximize the revenue.

If people could buy single articles for pennies, no-one would buy the expensive monthly/annual subscriptions except the diehard fans.

On the contrary, I think it should be applauded that they publish stuff even if it goes against their own interest/image.