In my efforts with FTL I've learned that :
A. You can only have 5 markerOptions styles in a layer.
B. If you have 1 layer styled with markerOptions, you can't style any additional layers.
I'd like to use Fusion Table Layers for my map project but this is making my life really difficult, as I'd like to have more than five markers.
Are there any workarounds?
How is this made?
The style limitations you mention only apply to Fusion Table layers created via the GMap API. The workaround is to use the Fusion Table User Interface.
E.g. One of the tables used by the Newspaper map you linked above is http://www.google.com/fusiontables/DataSource?dsrcid=552892
Click Visualize Map and then, if it's your own table, choose Configure styles. There are several ways to set as many markers as you like (so long as they are the official FT marker names). Based on values from other columns, based on a column containing the marker name, etc. These styles will show up in your GMap application.