If I am reading correctly you are proposing 5 cents is too low so the price should be higher. But the high price will be too high so per-article pricing is bad.

If I am reading correctly you are proposing 5 cents is too low so the price should be higher. But the high price will be too high so per-article pricing is bad. Consumption models change and pricing models change with it (singles vs albums, NetFlix vs BlockBuster, etc). The idea behind micropayments was that people could have the al-a-carte option and publications like NYTimes could cast a really wide net, collecting cents from millions of readers. My ISP currently adds metered billing if I go above my plan's bandwidth quota but puts a ceiling until I reach the next plan's limit (which is unmetered bandwidth). This sort of al-a-carte with a ceiling model works quite well.