Practicalmadness

CNET News.com is reporting that beginning Sunday, AOL Time Warner will begin limiting access to the websites for its magazines, starting with People and Entertainment Weekly. Over the next month or so, other titles -- including such vital, hard-hitting publications as InStyle, Southern Living, Teen People and Real Simple -- will make the same move.

AOL is trying something a little different here, tying access to the sites to purchases of the print versions, rather than charging a separate yearly or monthly fee (as the Wall Street Journal does). Subscribers will have unlimited access for the entire term of their subscription, while purchasing a copy on a newsstand will grant you access "for the duration of the magazine edition [you] purchase." AOL members, of course, will have unlimited access as part of their subscription.

So at any rate, as an AOL member who finds the recipes and homemaking tips in Real Simple to be compelling, but ultimately impractical, this does not affect me.