I to wouldn’t be paying for online magazine subscriptions. Or even for fiction novels. Reading fiction is good way of relaxing and I would like to read the plot the author builds up by the pool or sipping cola in a relaxing arm chair. Never in front of my laptop!!

My taste in magazine tends towards the … esoteric. Interestingly, both New Scientist and Scientific American have websites which both reprint the magazine articles and offer additional, web only content. For New Scientist print magazine subscribers, this is free. Scientific American, on the other hand, charges even print subscribers for some of its content.

I also often read science fiction genre magazines. You could argue that much of the content (reviews of show writers, say, or retrospectives on films or books from times past…reviews of shows, movies, graphic novels etc) is available online. However, it is nice to have a magazine in your sticky little fingers, and the content available where ever you happen to be (not to mention the images).

So, in a nutshell, I agree. Gasp.