The WSJ specifically requires login to view articles (because they require an active subscription to read anything on their site). Most of the other newspaper sites (at least; not going to go and pick through the whole list) are the same, with different thresholds for when login is required.

I'm not sure what happens on the site after login on WSJ, if they are doing it semi-correctly then it should be a secure page after login. If that's not the case, then yea they should improve this. Not picking through them individually, there are a number of pages outside the newspaper category that are strictly informational without even login forms.