There's little chance of the postman delivering the June copy of Reason magazine to the wrong address.

The home of each of the 40,000 subscribers to the Libertarian publication will be circled in red on the cover, which will show an aerial photo of a subscriber's neighborhood.

By marrying satellite aerial photography with the sophisticated technology of a donated Xeikon digital printing press, Cal Poly graphic communication students are creating 40,000 individualized covers for the upcoming edition of the monthly print magazine of "free minds and free markets," which started in 1968.

The unusual covers go with a lead story by Declan McCullagh on privacy issues and the positive power of databases, which can be used to give consumers more options and greater convenience. The customized magazines -- which only cost a few more cents per copy to produce than their regular issues -- are a dramatic way to prove a point: The age of customized information is on the doorstep.

"This is where print media are going," said Harvey Levenson, head of the Cal Poly graphic communication department. "Some day your newspaper may be personalized for the individual reader. It provides people with the opportunity to get the information they are particularly interested in."

It's also a reminder that very little personal information is private.

"Welcome to the database nation, where everything about you is floating in cyberspace," said editor Nick Gillespie. "If someone has your address they can literally pull up an overhead view of your home and driving directions to your front door."

The cover of each individual magazine has a satellite aerial map of the subscriber's neighborhood. Beneath the map, in large type, the subscriber's name is followed by, "They Know Where You Live! -- The benefits of a database nation."

And there's more personalizing.

The inside front cover has a message to the subscriber with information specific to them and their neighborhood, including a street map of the neighborhood and related demographics. The back cover has additional personalized text, and there are even customized ads from the Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm, and the Marijuana Policy Project, a lobbying group that advocates change in marijuana laws.

The widespread availability of information is nothing new, said Gillespie, citing the common uses of Yahoo, Google, Lexis Nexis and other Internet search engines and databases. Reason itself is produced by a dispersed staff that communicates electronically: Gillespie lives in Ohio, the publisher in Connecticut, the art director in Arizona, a Web editor in San Francisco, several staffers in Washington, D.C., and one staffer at its nominal headquarters in Los Angeles.

"The World Wide Web drives home the fact that we are much more networked than we ever used to be," Gillespie said. "Everybody I know has googled old boyfriends and girlfriends.

"In a weird way, it's like what we're doing is rubbing your face in it."