Also, the psychology of most people's internet browsing is that of a casual, enjoyable activity undertaken to escape from whatever else they're doing, with only a few moments spent reading a typical article.

Insert a purchase decision into that flowful sesh (even for as little as a penny) and most will find it more relaxing to just instead go and click on one of the many free articles at their disposal being served up by free aggregators (like this one).

These debates always pop up here with little awareness that the newspaper industry tried micropayments 20 years ago and it didn't work. Paywalls were discovered in 2011 or so, they worked, and that's pretty much been that.

Source: I founded a micropayments company in 2002 and worked at a newspaper 2009-2013.