Money for nothing and clicks for free

After the past year especially, scholarly publishers are looking for new models that work in an age of digital downloadable segmentable content and declining sales and institutional support. Over ten years ago I heard someone say at a conference that “the page is no longer primary.” That’s never been truer. (Some would say that the publisher is no longer primary in the age of Web 2.0; I’ll let someone else tackle that one.)

David Wiley at the CHE’S Wired Campus reminds us once again that free content can lead to print sales. Free content can probably also lead to digital sales. So many questions, and so little time as our industry shifts and quakes daily. Where is the collaborative effort involving tenure decisionmakers, scholarly societies, academic publishers, libraries, and other stakeholders taking up this question and many more? Per the King, it’s now or never.


About michael

Marketing & Sales Manager since 2012