Putting 40,000 Readers, One by One, on a Cover

One of the few magazines that I subscribe to (Reason along with the Economist, URB, Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times) is going to put a satellite photo of each subscribers neighborhood on the cover. Reason is a great read and you can actually access all of the issues on-line for free (minus the current issue which comes on-line a couple weeks later).

In some respects, Reason's cover stunt is less Big Brother than one more demonstration that micromarketing is here to stay. "My son gets sports catalogs where his name is imprinted on the jerseys that are on the cover," Mr. Rotenberg said. "He thinks that's very cool."

In his editor's note describing the magazine's database package, Mr. Gillispie left open three spots - commuting time, educational attainment and percentage of children living with grandparents - so he could adapt his message to individual readers. Mr. Gillespie said that the parlor trick could have profound implications as database and printing capabilities grow.

"What if you received a magazine that only had stories and ads that you were interested in and pertained to you?" he asked. "That would be a magazine that everyone would want to read."