Adding columns to published article in transactional replication

[jcaulder]

I am running SQL Server 2008 R2 with merge and transactional replication. I recently added some columns to a published article. The schema change correctly replicated to subscribers under merge replication. However, in transactional replication the columns did not replicate. When I look at article properties for the table, the new columns are displayed but unchecked. If I try to check the new columns to have them replicated, I am prompted that taking this action will require a snapshot and reinitialization of all subscribers. I have added columns in the past without reinitializing but I think this is the first time since upgrading our SQL Server from SQL 2000 to SQL 2008.

So is this expected and new behavior in SQL 2008 transactional replication?
Is there any way around reinitializing the subscriber?
Seems a little absurd to have to snapshot an entire database to add a column. This transactional replication feeds our reporting server database so we have lots of triggers and indexes different in that environment, all of which will have to be re-created if we snapshot. We are talking hours of work to simply add a column.

Some of the BOL entries say that schema changes are propagated automatically for 2008 transactional and merge replication. That has been my experience in the past with SQL 2000. I had not budgeted nor expected there to be system downtime to add a column.

Thanks in advance!