There are lots of ultra-specific news publications that require subscriptions. It's usually not very cheap either, but if they can gather 100 annual subscriptions at $2000 a piece it's enough to pay for the salary of at least one full-time journalist and one full-time editor, as well as any design overhead. It also allows them to maintain full independence.

People who usually subscribe to these things are researchers, industry-related businesses, other journalists or traders looking for an edge. The journalists writing the content are also researchers that have a direct, exclusive interest in the content so it turns out fairly high quality. Here[0] is another in a related industry: the Iraqi oil markets. With an annual subscription cost of $2301.

[0] https://www.iraqoilreport.com/subscriber/signup

In the grocery retail business, the trade press is free if you work for a retailer, and very expensive as a wholesaler. The subscription also comes with listing in a registry, moving the expense to the marketing budget.

Trade magazines like these are actually good candidates for paywalls. Their small reader base is likely to get their employer to pay for it.

Wasn't paywalled for me but I'm running Brave with I don't know how many extentions to block scripts, ads and the like. What were you viewing it in?

Not paywalled here, but I am visiting from a University IP.

Wasn't paywalled for me and I am visiting from the outside the US. Maybe they think you will pay for the article :)