The questions are many. The answers vary for each individual title and change over time. The publishing world has been trying out a variety of solutions to the vexing problems and opportunities that Internet publishing presents. Newspapers, consumer magazines, academic journals, and newsletters have all taken a stab at finding a successful combination of online electronic accessibility and print distribution. While there is little argument over the utility of providing subscription information and descriptions on the Net, there is no agreement on how much freely accessible information a publication can provide before a negative impact is seen on print subscriptions.
Periodicals have a great deal of content that can be offered over the Internet.
This ranges from bibliographic information such as a table of contents entry, to extracts, abstracts, full text, and full text with all images and an identical page layout. For the publisher, the trick is to find an appropriate balance between giving enough information away free to attract the attention of the target audience and increase subscriptions. For the information user, the problem lies in determining which content is available for free online. These are all freely available sources rather than subscription services. This allows the publisher to get a more accurate sense of what market is reading an online version.