One more thought (RE: Consortia and consolidation (RE: Information Access Alliance ...)

["William Walsh" <libwdw@langate.gsu.edu>]

If you listen to the Dec. 7th Wiley business update webcast 
<http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?p=irol-eventDetails&c=129095&eventID=1422393>, 
especially Eric Swanson's section, one of the "principal drivers" 
in Wiley's acquisition of Blackwell appears to be Wiley's 
interest in Blackwell's society journals.

The webcast should be available until Dec. 28th.

William Walsh
Head, Acquisitions Department
Georgia State University Library
Atlanta, GA 30303
Email:  wwalsh@gsu.edu


>>> On 12/13/2006 at 4:57 PM, "Rick Anderson" <rickand@unr.edu> wrote:
>>  As a friend noted to me, a principal driver for these mergers
>> is the need to get more influence with library consortia, whose
>> fundamental structure favors the largest publishers.
>
> My earlier comments about the general impact of consolidated
> spending notwithstanding, I do wonder whether your friend is
> correct about his assessment in this case.  While a general trend
> towards consolidated spending will tend, I believe, towards a
> general trend in consolidated selling (especially among jobbers
> and middlemen, where margins are especially tight), I have to
> wonder whether library behavior _in particular_ was really a
> "principal driver" in the Blackwell/Wiley merger, or in any of
> the other major publisher mergers we've seen recently.  Cause and
> effect can be hard to tease out, of course, but I suspect there
> may have been much more important factors at play here.
>
> ----
> Rick Anderson
> Dir. of Resource Acquisition
> University of Nevada, Reno Libraries
> rickand@unr.edu