Grading The Golf Websites Week: Golf Digest and Golf World

hanks for the feedback on your favorite sites and on golf.com. One of the interesting points arising on the golf.com comment thread involved free online content and the decision of some to no longer subscribe to the print edition due to online availability. This has to be one of the trickiest areas for a publication, but I've long been a believer that paying magazine and/or web subscribers should have access to special content and print archives (the NYTimes.com model until recently) and while it would be deadly for a blogger, only breaking news pieces or original content be open to all online readers. It seems to me that ESPN.com/ESPN The Magazine has done a fine job of handling with this balance (of course I say this as a non-subscriber to the "Insider" service!).

This brings us to the dilemma for GolfDigest.com and GolfWorld.com, who share their site in partnership with ESPN.com and of course, with highly successful print operations. Obviously I am in an awkward position because I have contributed to GolfDigest.com and Golf World this year, but I still would like to offer a few comments to kick off the discussion.

The new layouts are greatly improved over the previous site layout, though I would like to see a larger text font (which explains why you get the big letters here at GS.com...what can I say, I'm an old man). The Golf Digest blogs are excellent in concept.  The three blogs covered by those who also file prints stories delicately balance the fine line between offering complimentary yet still-distinct coverage from their print work. So while I would love to see more from Frost and Nixon on the equipment blog and less hemorroidal discomfort induced by the sheer pain of sitting through Matty G's "Ambushes," their online work along with Ryan Herrington's excellent college golf blog prove that there is a place for blogs that compliment the print editions.

Both sites offer a terrific amount of content from the magazines. But sometimes I wonder if it's too much? Might they be better served putting more of it behind a subscriber only wall to enhance the value (oops, there I go all Tim Finchem on you) for the paying customer? Or would that only scare you away?

I know as a reader I would like to see more podcasts and writer Q&A's similar to what the New Yorker has been doing, would you? Any blogs you would like to see and by which writers?

Okay, enough about me, tell us what you'd like to see on the GolfDigest.com/GolfWorld.com sites.