I wonder how many of the people who say they'd pay 50c would actually pay 50c if they could.

I'd say I read an average of 10 articles per day (with various definitions of "read"). I can't see myself actually spending $5 a day.

At that point I'd be better off getting a few news site subscriptions, but I also highly dislike the idea of committing to a single news source, and committing to a few isn't much of an improvement.

Of course, you could introduce a "tip after you read" mechanism, which I assume would generate probably about 50c per article, and probably motivate various "remember to tip" mechanisms that (I suspect) the same people who say they'd pay/tip would hate with a passion.