With a faltering business model, The Boston Globe may finally be looking to readjust its all-or-nothing subscription model.

The paper/site recently issued a survey inquiring about reader interest in a stand-alone subscription for the site’s Ideas section.

It’s a good idea (and one that I’ve previously recommended newspapers do for all special sections), since news loyalists are usually loyal to a certain section. After all, who has the time to read an entire newspaper from front to back these days?

Ellen Clegg, executive director of communications, at The Boston Globe told Jim Romenesko that The Globe is aware that “the Ideas section appeals to readers nationally and internationally who might be unlikely to subscribe to the Boston Globe as a whole. … The survey is designed to gather more information; we haven’t made a decision on whether to move ahead with this project.”

This fact that The Globe appeals to people in Boston and across the world is an important fact that more subscription sites should pay attention to. Even though there is a place for local news, large media brands should really start thinking about marketing to either psychographics (shared common interests or mind-sets) or diasporas (shared cultural heritages but diverse physical locations). In a globalized world, and on the globalized Web, this is a smarter way to identify target markets than the radius of your print distribution.