Which ever version of SharePoint you use the question soon comes up 'Sites or Pages?'. I used to be a 'Sites' man. The main reason being the following;
1. You can add unique navigation (both Quick Launch and Top Nav)
2. You can add unique permissions
3. You can use site templates
4. You use varying Site features
As I get older and get involved in more varying SharePoint Projects my view has changed. Perhaps with newer version of SharePoint customising of pages have become easier. Maybe the clever way you can now use the Term Store (Managed Metadata) to set the navigation has made me re-think. But now I think about creating new pages before I create sub-sites.
The main reason is that you can guarantee that very soon somebody is going to want to either use a column from a list on this new area (Lookup column) or to access a view of data in this new area. So creating a New Page in the Site gives you much more flexibility for using the information.
Now (with my wiser head on), the only two reasons for creating a Subsite are either, if you need added security or require unique navigation. If it is navigation then consider hiding the Quick Launch (or Current Nav) and adding a Links webpart instead.
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