Re: Chronicle article: Subscription Service's Difficulties Could Be Costly for Libraries and Publishers

["Rollo Turner" <rollo.turner@onet.co.uk>]

Perhaps I can answer some of your questions, James. In general terms
agents bill libraries in the autumn (fall) and will start paying
publishers more or less from that time. In many cases this means that the
agent may end up paying publishers in advance of receiving the money from
the library. If agents waited until each customer paid them for their
subscriptions then a great many subscriptions might be renewed late and
that could have consequences for the library.

Because most agents will batch their orders to publishers to avoid having
to cut many small cheques it stands to reason that some early payments by
libraries will be held by the agent for a short time before it is paid to
the publisher. This tends to be balanced by those payments which come in
slightly later.

Again I would reiterate my earlier posting. Our industry is remarkably
stable, the instances of subscription agents hitting major trouble
involving the loss of subscription revenues is very small. Whilst
negotiations are continuing to take place between divine and potential
purchasers of RoweCom there is still a chance that the situation may not
turn out as badly as currently feared.

It is interesting to note that the majority of agents are privately owned
companies, generally they are financially sound, well run and have high
ethical standards. Share price manipulation is something most agents
probably do not have to consider in their business as a result!

Rollo Turner
Secretary General
Association of Subscription Agents and Intermediaries
Tel +44 (0)1494 534778
www.subscription-agents.org
Email rollo.turner@onet.co.uk


----- Original Message -----
From: "James A. Robinson" <jim.robinson@stanford.edu>
To: <liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2003 1:51 AM
Subject: Re: Chronicle article: Subscription Service's Difficulties Could Be
Costly for Libraries and Publishers

> How likely is it that the money which has left library hands and into
> RoweCom will be kept in limbo?  I don't know anything about the world of
> subscription intermediares. Have cases like this occured before? Do
> license agreements have clauses (from one side or the other) discussing
> exactly what happens when a 3rd party drops the ball?
>
> In the Money Market Fund world, when funds have floundered, other funds
> stepped in to buy off the shares, sometimes at massive losses, in order to
> keep their own shares from plummeting. They had a clear incentive to calm
> irrational fears which might cause their own customers to pull out of
> still-solid funds.  I'd assume nothing like that incentive exists in the
> subscription world, but I'd hope for a clear sign that a company
> purchasing RoweCom divisions would carry out RoweCom's existing
> agreements.
>
> Am I correct in surmising that it is not uncommon for the subscription
> service industry to operate in such a way that money may routinely move
> from point A (the publisher's account) to point B (the subscription
> service), and not quickly move to point C (the service the librarian is
> paying for)?  I guess my naive model would have been one where the
> subscription service basically moves funds recieved (minus it's cut)
> directly into the accounts of the service provider the library is trying
> to pay.
>
> The comment about Open Access being a guarantee interested me as well.
> What occurs in a scenerio where BioMed Centeral or similar Open Access
> groups close down?  Do all articles get moved to another online source, en
> masse?  Is PubMed Central the one and only such backup?  Are there other
> sources of online support standing ready to handle an influx of material?
>
> Jim