lucasjosh.com

According to the New York Times, tomorrow The Atlantic will be opening up their archives beyond just for subscribers.

Readership will get another boost starting Tuesday, when TheAtlantic.com will abolish the fire wall that has allowed only subscribers to the print magazine to see most of its articles online. It will make its archive accessible, too.

I think they are on the right track in terms of moving the magazine beyond just print.

The Web site “functioned for too long as just a marketing arm for the print magazine, rather than publication in its own right,” said James Bennet, the editor in chief. For years, he said, “it was a very small number of people, working very hard, who kept it alive.”

Craig Stoltz gives some additional perspective to the move.

The Atlantic’s policy, while not entirely uncommon, is so dunderheaded it’s hard to know where to start.

* People who subscribe to the print edition don’t need to read the stories online–so they essentially receive nothing of value for their patronage.
* Potential new readers are punished and insulted when they go to read an article and get stopped by the dead-tree police. Subscribe or pay $2.95 to read any further, pal. You got a problem with that?

This kind of policy begins when someone in a corner office sputters, “But we can’t give it away for free, we’ll erode our subscriber base!” and turns into reality when others in the room lacking the courage or brains to explain why this is a terrible way to treat high quality content these days.