"Micro-transactions" were all the rage back about 15 years ago. (IIRC) The biggest hurdle at that time is that the credit card providers required vendors to charge each transaction individually. So that $0.05/article would actually cost $0.40, with the $0.35 transaction fee. Internet businesses pushed the CC providers to allow batch processing, but the CC providers said no. They wanted their thirty-five cents per transaction. Nowadays? This is TOTALLY feasible! And I would LOVE this. I don't want a subscription to The Economist again. I want to pay $0.10/article. I'll happily read $10 worth of articles, because they are well-written, insightful, and valuable. But buy a subscription? Never again. (And I am not sure why I am so against getting another subscription. I was a subscriber for 10 or more years.)