First off, they don't have to cost the same amount of money. And second, the amount of work/quality affects the reputation of the publication, which in turn aff

First off, they don't have to cost the same amount of money. And second, the amount of work/quality affects the reputation of the publication, which in turn affects the amount of people that pay for the article and the price that can be asked for it. On Blendle, I've not paid pennies for articles that seemed interesting but came from low-reputation publications, and I've paid more than a buck for articles that didn't immediately catch my eye, but were published in a top magazine.