Micro payments are the solution. There needs to be a third party micro payments company that acts as an "Open ID" for logging in. Then you could just pay $0.05 per article you read, or whatever the content provider chooses.
On the other hand, there's a monthly subscription, which I would probably buy from some reputable sources.
But, I agree with your "third party micro payments company" idea - it's 2009 and online payments still suck. Especially for micropayments. Especially for all of us outside of America.