Article on BioOne's Business Model Shift

[Todd Carpenter <todd@arl.org>]

Dear friends and partners,

BioOne is pleased to announce the publication of an article describing
BioOne's continuing business model transition, which was launched in 2004
and continues to be well received in the scholarly communications
community.  "BioOne's Business Model Shift: Balancing the Interests of
Libraries and Independent Publishers" was published in the September issue
of Serials Review.  The article explains the background situation faced by
BioOne and its participating publishers, provides details on all
components of the initiative, and outlines some of the goals BioOne hopes
to achieve with each component. It further examines the successes that
have been achieved in the first year of the initiative and explores some
of the challenges that BioOne continues to face.

As many of you are aware, BioOne is in the process of a multi-year and
multi-faceted shift of its business model to address the long-term
stability and sustainability of participating publishers.  Recent
circulation and income trends described in detail in our 2004 article
published in portal: Libraries and the Academy (available to subscribers
at http://muse.jhu.edu) and formed one of the main basis for the business
model shift described in the Serials Review article.

The five key aspects of the business model transition described in detail
in the article are: support of participating publishers individually,
support for participating publishers collectively, internal cost control,
growth in different markets, and modest subscription price increases.  
These five points aim to increase the breadth of support that BioOne
provides to its publishers, both financially and logistically without
placing the burden for these shifts solely on the serials budgets of
BioOne subscribing libraries.

BioOne continues to provide detailed and open, peer-reviewed analysis of
its business model development to the community.  From its beginning,
BioOne has involved the various constituencies -- libraries, scholars, and
publishers -- in the development of our business strategies.  We hope that
publication of this article will help to improve understanding among these
different groups of the competing interests and needs of the various
participants in BioOne.

The article is available via the Serials Review website:  
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00987913

For more information, please contact Todd Carpenter, Director of 
Business Development, BioOne, via todd@arl.org or 202-296-2296.

===========================
Todd A. Carpenter
Director of Business Development
BioOne
21 Dupont Circle, NW
Suite 800
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 296-2296
Fax: (202) 872-0884
todd@arl.org
www.BioOne.org