I am a Friend of the Library at a local university and they have Woodworkers Journal in their online library. This one only goes back to about 2000. All of the articles are in a pdf format with links from the table of contents. This works fine as you can download an article and print a copy to use in the shop if you are building one of their projects. I assume this one is similar.
Fine woodworking also has a similar set of CD's with all issues that I have considered. In the long run, the cost of the CD's is less expensive than the cost of subscriptions.