This move by the Charleston Gazette-Mail is innovative:
Finally, a newspaper figures out that out-of-town readers are willing to pay a buck or two to read a story! It’s unbelievable that it took 20+ years of online journalism to figure this out. Kudos to the @wvgazettemail. pic.twitter.com/b0ppAsdgBb
— Bradford Pearson (@BradfordPearson) December 5, 2022
The better moves in my view would be the single article purchase for a few cents or a topic follow for a set number of days, also for a few cents.
There are many ways publishers can monetise their content and rely less on print.
Plenty of online platforms offer pay as you go or access opportunities. It surprises me that newspaper publishers have not picked this up. They have the content.