The answer is yes. If everyone went to this site with the intention of paying for good journalism, Google would rank it higher. Now it might penalize the site if the first thing that it displays is something that looks like an interstitial popup rather than content, based on the assumption that this type of experience is a poor-performing feature on other sites.
Google is built to optimize relevance against what people are searching for at a heuristic level (increasing the utility of their search engine based on each immediate choice people make, as opposed to a model like Facebook that tries to increase overall relevance of experience to get more time spent).
Most people who end up on WSJ are searching for quick, accurate, free information. The landing page (a full article) provided that, albeit in an unsustainable business model.
The vast majority of internet users are not looking to subscribe — which has become the main function of the landing page now. That means that the site is, on average, less relevant at a heuristic level.
Google is built to optimize relevance against what people are searching for at a heuristic level (increasing the utility of their search engine based on each immediate choice people make, as opposed to a model like Facebook that tries to increase overall relevance of experience to get more time spent).
Most people who end up on WSJ are searching for quick, accurate, free information. The landing page (a full article) provided that, albeit in an unsustainable business model.
The vast majority of internet users are not looking to subscribe — which has become the main function of the landing page now. That means that the site is, on average, less relevant at a heuristic level.
Cheers!