The Verge and 404 Media are building out new functions that would allow them to distribute posts on their sites and on federated platforms – like Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky – at the same time. Replies to those posts on those platforms become comments on their sites.
Paywalls just don’t mix that well with federation. The teasers are basically ads, and why would fediverse volunteers want to propagate some company’s ads? The non-federated model they are using now seems fine.