http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/29/business/media/29mag.html?_r=1&hp
seems as though lots of people are asking this question...many changes in the magazine world.
I feel the same about printed media as many folks now feel about landlines. While a cell phone is not a 100% functionally complete replacement for a wireline phone, its good enough and also has features a landline doesn't. Online media is like that. Writing notes on the pages, dog-earing corners, etc.. doesn't work (or doesn't work the same way) but you do gain video, audio, etc.. All that being said, anytime you find a page/article you really want to keep, be sure and print it to PDF and store it somewhere. It won't last forever and you can't just toss it in a box in the attic for future use.
I punted on subscriptions (newspaper and magazines) about 7-8 years ago when web content became full-featured enough to be useful.
I am pretty much, however, not willing to pay for most premium reading content on the web so I am sure I'm missing some good stuff.
The only model that would work for me would be one where I could pay a tiny bit occasionally for compelling content I really wanted to read. I would also love to have this model for access to an archive that OCRd/indexed copies of most US periodicals from the 30's through now. I wish someone would get busy with that.
