Many news sites require a username and a password, which is understandable in terms of specific business model requirements. Still, the burden for newsreaders, who are required to register and maintain account information for each individual site becomes a real problem. Especially considering the huge cross-linking the blogosphere offers for online news sites.
I think that a central identity management service, which will provide a single sign-on service for these sites will be very popular. At least for me:) and a few colleagues of mine as well. A different approach can be to integrate this capability into news aggregators who serve the links to those news sites.
Anyone who cares to do something about this I will love to assist if I can.