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.
You missed his point. A big part of his point was making your content accessible for free so you don't lose out on all the search engine and casual user traffic that is generated by having your content out there for free. Micropayments doesn't solve that problem (which is a large part of why they aren't being used by many even after the ideas been around forever)
Actually, I don't think micropayments PER content is ever going to be popular. For example: "Monetize The Audience, Not The Content" I don't know whether I should even read the article, because the title gives utterly obvious advise, even if content (maybe) isn't. On the contrary many promising titles deliver disappointing content. How do I decide whether I want to pay those 5 cents to read particular article?
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.
I think you need to separate "the idea" from the obviously technically unfeasible implementation he gave as an example.
His idea is to make your content free to people who use it casually but to charge people who use it extensively. I think there's some merit to that. The more you use something the more valuable it becomes to you and hence the more likely you are to pay for it.
There are definitely some technical hurdles to it but on the surface it's an idea worth consideratoin.
Yeah, the FT example is an apt one. Don't alienate your audience. Make it come back frequently and get used to you. Then ask them to pay. Also don't forget about the classic Freemium model: Offering more for paid customers.
