Pay For Content? We need oyster card for online payment (or one touch shopping)

(First off, I will apologise if this is retreading old ground, I have not read anything on this subject and want to see if anyone else has similar opinions or other ideas).

There has been a lot of discussion recently about the concept of paying for content and various websites (namely those operated and owned by Rupert Murdoch) starting to charge for full access to their website content, either through subscription models or one time usage charges. There has been a lot of comments and discussion about how this is a natural progression for the publishing industry and how it could save it and so on and so forth.

I for one do not have a problem with the concept of paying for information. If it is information I need, or something informative that I wish to read, then I do not mind paying for something. The means in which these payment systems are implemented however are vitally important. Someone such as myself is not going to take out a monthly/annual subscription, online or otherwise to the financial times (I believe in their subscription you get both print and online versions) so I can read one article a year, if that.

Conversely, I might be more inclined to take out a subscription to something such as Metal Hammer, but even then it is unlikely. What I would be fully prepared to do, is pay 5 or 10p (around 15 cents for any US readers) for a quality article/blog post/piece of online information. What will potentially hold this kind of system back is the payment method. I may not wish to set up an account on a particular site and go through the registration and payment process just to read a 500 word article. I am more likely to give up and try and find the information elsewhere. The payment isn't the stumbling block, a long winded sign up process would be.

In my opinion, what would be ideal is some kind of virtual oyster card, where you could literally "swipe" to gain access to the content and have the money deducted from your account. This could be achieved using a browser plugin and sites all being signed up to be part of this one click payment process. I am not advocating this would be a universal solution for everything but in this particular area where the need to get the information quickly is often the decisive factor in the decision making process, I think this could be of real benefit. I know Amazon offer a one click purchase option with some of their premium services and some of the concepts of that could be applied here. I know some people would be reluctant to have their details stored in a plugin for reasons ranging from general security to their kids being able to use it for their own purchasing "needs" so I think a purchase limit of a few pounds/dollars might be a sensible cap on this, but that is purely down to personal opinion.

As more and more sites restrict their content, and it will happen, it is happening as we speak, the need to retain the ability to access information fast will remain, and this is just one possible idea of a solution. If a lot of people got together and agreed on a universal format for it, it might even work, but thats just my 2 cents worth.