Solution to the Journalism Crisis

I believe that quality writing deserves to be rewarded. I am happy to pay the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, etc. an affordable amount for a specific article (50¢, $1.00 ?). However, flat monthly subscriptions are not practical.

For example, NYT is $50/yr, WSJ is $100/yr, Bloomberg $420/yr, LA Times $98/yr, The Guardian £119/yr, WaPo ~$80/yr. These are all fine publications, and I have no doubt each is well worth the price. However, I do not have time to take full advantage of all the channels if I were to subscribe (which I can't afford), and I don't want to limit myself to one paper. I want to pick and choose random articles from any publication.

What if I could pay on a per-article basis? I wouldn't have a problem paying 50¢ or $1.00 for an article I was interested in. It's not practical for each publisher to set up micro-payments. But, if there were an intermediate agent that accepted and managed payments for individual random articles, the money could be aggregated and remitted in a lump sum to the publishers. Sort of like an old-fashioned news stand.

The middleman could accept PayPal payments, or I could open an account with my credit card, and pay once a month for all the individual articles I have read.

Sounds like a business opportunity. Is anyone doing this?