The New Yorker On A Piece Of Fallible Hardware

Almost every issue of The New Yorker now comes with an advertisement for the Complete New Yorker. You know, that deal where you can get all the issues in digital form on DVD since 1925? Well, I noticed recently that they offer the same deal on an external hard drive.

I think The New Yorker is pitching this for the following people:

• Those that have a computer, portable or otherwise, that is used offline.
• Those that want random access to any issue in the catalog.
• Those willing to cart around a fallible piece of hardware that stores their expensive content.
  

Hey, New Yorker, why not provide this as a service? So:

• You pay some monthly subscription (maybe on top of the magazine price).
• You have online access to the same digital catalog, via your web browser.
• If you expect to be offline, you can download some set of issues to read, with some time-based expiration to prevent people carting away the content without paying the subscription.
  

Minus the cost aspect, libraries do this with e-books today. Someone hosts the content (and maintains it, and backs it up, and all that). And I consume it. All this without having to cart around a hard drive (or a set of DVDs for that matter).

Still, I wonder how this is selling. Maybe I should package some blog posts on a limited edition collector's hard drive with my signature etched on the case?