Paywalls are justified, even though they are annoying. It costs money to produce good writing, to run a website, to license photographs. A lot of money, if you want quality. Asking people for a fee to access content is therefore very reasonable. You don’t expect to get a print subscription to the newspaper gratis, why would a website be different? I try not to grumble about having to pay for online content, because I run a magazine and I know how difficult it is to pay writers what they deserve.
Source: Current Affairs
I’d rather say “Proper news are paywalled while opinions are free”. News require analysis and research. Both is expensive, so since opinions are free and everyone has one, it’s quite easy to spread that opinion and claim it’s news.