The Chronicle of Higher Education reported today that Rice University’s press, which became all-digital four years ago, will close in September.

The move ends a high-profile experiment in digital university-press publishing. Closed once before, in 1996, the press was reborn in 2006 as an all-digital operation. But it had proven too expensive to sustain even in its new form, according to a statement by Eugene Levy, a Rice professor of astrophysics who stepped down as the university’s provost in June.

Update 8/20: Inside Higher Ed weighs in.