Are you sure they are exempt? I was always under the impression that their practice is pretty obviously illegal. I just did a quick google search and didn't find anything about exemption. So they are as exempt from the GDPR as much as Al Capone was exempt from taxes ;)
What they seem to be exempt from is getting consent if they require the data for journalistic purposes.
IANAL, but I think they are simply not following the law and waiting for a definitive decision by a court.
ed: So I kept reading and from my understanding it's TBD whether the practice is lawful. The European Data Protection Board has issued an opinion against it a year ago.
the edpb did not. that was explicitly -- in the very first paragraph -- under the DSA, not GDPR:
> The scope of this opinion is indeed limited to the implementation by large online platforms
Separately, in the first couple of paragraphs, they basically complain that they don't like the alternative that platforms can legally implement of paywalls for all. :shrug: Which they may not like, but is legal. So consent or pay is essentially a realpolitik deal to not implement paywalls.
What they seem to be exempt from is getting consent if they require the data for journalistic purposes.
IANAL, but I think they are simply not following the law and waiting for a definitive decision by a court.
ed: So I kept reading and from my understanding it's TBD whether the practice is lawful. The European Data Protection Board has issued an opinion against it a year ago.