Paywalls create a behavioural barrier in the form of upfront cost. However, promising the content (or any other indicator like publisher, writer, or summary), committing to pay a fix amount for a month before being certain of its utility acts as a deterrent. Such a problem is inherent even in pay-per-view.

Time based charge perfectly solves the problem by a near first degree price discrimination. Readers can freely start (say a 5-min read) without any charge. As they read through and do not feel it worth, they stop (in say 20 secs) and incur only a minimal charge. If they spend sufficient time reading the article to the full, they are charged the standard. If it is read multiple times or in depth, the quality of content is rewarded with a higher charge due to more time spent. If the reader is infrequent, the charge is less. This creates a perfect symphony, as readers pay equal to the value they derive. We can add a monthly cap for regular readers to encourage power users.

Such a model not only addresses the shortcomings of paywall but also of advertisements by way of higher revenues and better user experience.