I'd pay as well, and there even is one thing that ElReg could offer me in exchange for my money: a daily copy of all articles in the form of Kindle news subscription, just like I receive other newspapers. Just something to read on my commute to work.
I know it sounds like favouritism towards Amazon, however I have nothing against such a daily news delivery mechanism made available on other platforms/vendors where such paid-for news subscriptions are available. It's just that I already happen to use Kindle for my daily news review. I also know I could use Instapaper to scrap ElReg articles and copy them to my Kindle, but I'd rather let ElReg earn some money by preparing this for me - and making it appear just as a regular news from one source (called "The Register", rather than Instapaper).
Even better if sister site ThePlatform implemented such a mechanism as well, they have some very interesting articles which I'd very much prefer to read on an ebook than from large screen (and I do not like wasting paper on printouts). Preferably at different time of the day than ElReg one, giving me something to read on the other direction of my commute ;)