What a piece of shit. I want to access an article I read in FC this month online, and they greet me with "please put in your access code from this month's magazine". You're kidding me, right? If I had the damn magazine in front of me, do you think I need to try to find the article online to share here at work? NO you idiots. I just want the f__ing content. Can't you make me put in my name & zip code or something more reasonable, and more ubiquitous than some access code on some obscure page in this month's mag? What the hell? Who ordered this load of horseshit?

Or more likely, you remembered an article from an issue six months or years ago. For now, old archives still have free access, but what about the future?

One of my favs:
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/43/drv.html

Totally agree. Perhaps media sites that are not linkable someday in future will go way of the do-do? I think I heard it on Brand Mantra - "be linky". I also wanted to link to something in this FC issue. And Business 2.0. But nope. Not happening.

The article from the current issue become open to everybody after the first of the month.

This is something you they are trying. In the past, you would not have seen a link until the 3rd or 4th day of the issue's month. Now, they are letting you see the online articles earlier if you have a subscription.

Now, everyone is going to think that you can't get to content without a subscription.

Thanks for the feedback! In the past, we embargoed the current issue -- for everyone -- until several weeks after it hit the newsstands and subscribers' mail boxes. That content was not available at _all_. Our archives beyond the current issue remained freely available as they always have.

Now, the current issue _is_ available. As it stands, you only need to use the access code for the current issue -- the newest content. If you have a copy of the magazine, you can get inside the whole issue. If you're not interested in picking up the magazine, however, you can wait a month to access the stories. We make several pieces publicly available in the current issue, but you're right: To access the entire content of the new issue, you need to be a magazine reader. Once you use the access code, you don't need to again that month.

We're currently exploring other subscriber and reader access options -- and I welcome further feedback and ideas on how to make this work better -- but for now, there will be a code in each issue -- to access that issue -- and everything else will remain freely available.

What this is is only a month's grace period to give subscribers and readers access to premium content. Everything else is still open -- we didn't quite want to go the B2.0 route, where _everything_ is locked up. This hybrid seemed a sensible solution.

Heath,

Thanks for your comments. I am a subscriber, but typically leave my good reading at home, but love to share w/ others via the web. I have no problem with "a" code of some type, but it would be great if you could make the code "more universal", so to speak, so that I can use my subscriber number, or a combo of my personal info, or something else that makes the content more available. Frankly, I can see how people would want to consume the web content with magazine in hand, but in my case, with most pubs, I am consuming different types of media in different places, usually due to the contraints of not having one or the other type of media available...

I agree that this is a sensible solutions, and realize that everything else is available. I too despise the B2.0 method, as I am a subscriber of both you're pubs, however, I can use perennial data points such as my name, address, or customer # which I happen to either know or have near, or have an old issue around somewhere...either way, it's a bit more "accessible" than the per-issue code change.

Thanks again - it's great to know people are out there listening!

Dana,
Just want to say I hit this exact problem today. I want to pick some bits out of an article in the current issue and email to someone. I lent my physical copy of the magazine to someone and didn't happen to memorize the issue's "access code." Now I'm sh*t out of luck on trying to spread the word about a good Fast Company article 'cause I can't access the web version of it. If they are going to continue to use this system, they should use the subscriber number (which I do have on my other back issues.)