I get eWeek, one of a number of information technology weeklies, for free because I have a technology position and their advertisers want to get in front of my eyeballs.
The magazine comes to me electronically, via the Zinio Reader, rather than on paper. While I am sure this saves millions of trees, it is not a terribly convenient way to read a magazine. Even though the magazines are copied to my local machine (avg file size is 7 MB!), the reader moves quite slowly. And since I am on a 17" screen, the default two-page layout is all but impossible to read, besides headlines, without zooming in. And then the issue is that the magazine is formatted for print, not screen, with multiple columns and sidebars spread around the page.
What could make Zinio better? Better / more obvious zoom control; scroll bars, in addition to Adobe-style drag-scrolling; format content for 4:3 aspect ratio monitors; faster page flipping. And the always-vexing: can I carry it into the bathroom, kitchen, or onto the porch? In fact, why is this current setup any different than simply going to the eWeek website and reading it there? Oh, it appears that they keep the website about a week out of date. Interestingly, they do offer some of their content via RSS feed, primarily breaking news.
I give up. I know, I get what I pay for.