Absolutely nothing has changed since the 90s. News should be free. Free with unobtrusive ads if you want pictures and video to help with hosting costs. Stop trying to fiddle with this formula. lite.cnn.com is all we will ever need in terms of getting the message. Mircopayments are not a solution because nothing needs to be fixed.
One unobtrusive ad in the middle of an article isn't going to pay for a journalist and their camera person in a war zone.
By "news should be free" I think you probably mean "taxpayer funded".
Good journalists don't aspire to become wealthy. I meant what I wrote. The cost to fetch the article off a server and display it on my screen is too cheap to measure. A few ads will cover it.