David,
Linking to a registration-only site, especially if it requires payment, is considered something of a faux pas in the blogging world.

People get irritated when they follow a link, only to be stopped dead in their tracks by a notification that they don't have access.

Link what you like. In the end, it's your blog. The question is how considerate of your readership you would like to be. At the least you should provide a caveat with the link, warning people that the site requires subscription and/or registration.

--Brock

I just got around to this article also -- the content is well worth consideration, and the form it's presented in seems to be something that the Atlantic is trying to turn into a genre (they did the same thing with the war on terror last year).

I certainly don't consider it a faux pas to link to the Atlantic -- some things are worth paying for!

A good protocol to follow when linking to a registration-only site it to note it parenthetically just before the link: e.g. (registration required) or (free registration required).

Brock, it't certainly not the end of the world! It is discouraging and frustrating not to be able to read the article, which certainly looked interesting, but let's keep it in perspective. I don't think David was trying to be inconsiderate!
David, is this available in the print version available at newstands? Might be cheaper than getting a subscription.

The article is the cover story in the July/August issue, which is currently on newsstands.

It would be nice to see the Atlantic adopt what the WSJ and New Yorker are doing, making a few high profile articles available for free on their website to encourage discussion among blogs.

Great Article. The implications are frightening and I see our country going full speed in this direction.

Sorry folks, because I clicked to the Atlantic right away myself, I didn't realize that's a registration-required thing. I'll do better next time. David

David -- thanks for noticing the article, and saying something about it! Now this has to become your second-favorite Atlantic article, after this one . (No registration required!)

Let me say a word not about the substance of the piece but about web protocol -- posting, registration, and so on. The Atlantic already does, and did first, what the New Yorker etc do -- post free full-text versions of some articles from each issue, and leave others for those who pay for the magazine. Typically among those we DON'T make free is the cover story? Why? There is a micro and a macro answer.



The micro answer concerns the economic importance of cover stories. The main variable in newsstand sales of a magazine turns out to be the cover story. And the variations can be quite large -- enough to mean the difference between profit and loss for a magazine in the course of a year. Also, newsstand sales are the best generators of future subscribers. What I'm saying here is not my opinion, much less my recommendation. It is the basic truth of how magazines operate.

Therefore always to make the cover story available in real time, free, is in the long run a strategy no magazine could afford. We know! The Atlantic was the FIRST mainstream magazine to make its ENTIRE contents freely available on the web, almost a decade ago, soon after the introduction of Mosaic. About three years ago we switched to the current model, now used by a number of other magazines as well. We do this for the same reason that David Allen does not post full, free PDF files with the page proofs of his book, or full, free streaming video of one of his coaching sessions. You cannot, in the long run, try to sell what you are simultaneously giving away.

That's the macro point. I am the world's biggest fan of blogs. But there is a difference in good professional journalism, mainly the cost of gathering new information -- sending people out to distant locations to learn new things. That can't be done if there's no money supporting it, and that is why magazines have to charge for what they offer. I am sorry if site-registration is a nuisance for some people. But there are things that cost money to do and will not reliably be done over time for free. This applies to producing books, to running a seminar like David Allen's, or to publishing a magazine like ours. (And, yes, I think that a tag saying "Subscription site" or "Registration required" is a courtesy before the link.)

Sorry for cryptic pseudo-link in the previous posting. I thought I could just embed a link, HTML style, but either that doesn't work in comments or I don't know how in this system. Here is the Ojai's permanent- favorite article from the Atlantic Monthly:

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/prem/200407/fallows2

i read this last week and thought it brill (style, premise & content)! scary, ja?

glad to know there are some writers we can count on to speak up, as well as publications who'll print their words.

thanks for putting it out there.

Sorry, I hope I didn't come across to crassly. I recognize that some things are worth paying for, and some things couldn't exist without a subscription.

My main point, which should have been a request rather than what looked like a reprimand, was to say that registration- or pay-required sites should be linked with a warning.

Brock, no offense taken - good learning for me (I'm still using blog training wheels). And as you see I added the parenthesis. - David

David,

Access to information is one of the great services of public libraries! Many in the U.S. subscribe to EbscoHost, or other online periodical databases, that give their customers access to full text journal articles from home. The complete current issue of Atlantic is available free online to anyone whose library subscribes, as does mine. I'd suggest your readers give their libraries a call and see if they have this great access too.

--Kathy

My mistake, James. Once I registered for the Atlantic website I lost track of what was free vs reg. only. I'm a big fan of the magazine, like I said earlier, it's well worth the subscription.

http://www.forestcouncil.org/tims_picks/view.php?id=1121