Re: Wiley-Blackwell 2009 Subscription and Licensing Options

["Joe Serene" <serene@aps.org>]

The American Physical Society is one such publisher; that's 
exactly how we set prices, and have for many years.  We do our 
best (not always as successfully as we would like) to estimate 
our expenses over a year in advance, and then set our prices to 
cover these estimated expenses plus a small fixed percentage 
return.  The results for 2009 can be found at 
http://librarians.aps.org/pressrelease2009pricing.pdf .

We don't sell print-only subscriptions.  We regard print as an 
optional add-on to the primary online subscriptions, and we 
ascribe to the online journals all production costs except those 
specific to print. We then try to set the additional charges for 
print to cover just these specific print expenses.  This of 
course means that the cost of the print add-ons will grow as the 
number of print subscribers decreases.

Joe Serene
Treasurer/Publisher
American Physical Society

>>> "Joseph Esposito" <espositoj@gmail.com> 10/02/08 12:28 PM >>>

I suppose there are some publishers who justify prices based on 
the costs incurred, but I have never met any of them. Publishers 
typically justify prices (if they feel the need to justify them) 
based on the value of the products.  The justification is the 
mechanisms of the marketplace itself. When the marketplace 
believes appropriate value is delivered for the price, the 
product is purchased.  When the market believes the value is not 
up to snuff, there is no purchase.  The publisher does not set 
the prices; the market does.

Joe Esposito

On 10/1/08, FrederickFriend <ucylfjf@ucl.ac.uk> wrote:

> Emily,
>
> I am grateful to you for providing this information. I could not
> find the FAQs to which you referred; the page
> http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/librarians/faq.asp came up
> with "Error: the page you have requested cannot be found", and
> the closest I could find to a "Transition" site, viz.
> http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/Brand/id-35.html does not have any
> FAQs.
>
> Of course I accept that the cost of producing the content will be
> the same whether the delivery is print or electronic, because you
> will be producing print copies from an electronic base. You
> appear then to be saying that the cost of delivering the content
> is the same whether it is electronic or print. This contradicts a
> view I have heard from a number of distinguished publishers over
> the years, that maintaining a print production line adds between
> 20% and 30% to the cost of a journal. The argument put to me has
> always been that for customers to see the cost benefit from
> cancelling print, the print production line would have to be
> closed down completely, which is an argument I can understand.
> What Wiley-Blackwell appear to be doing now is including part of
> the cost for delivering print (i.e. the cost above the cost of
> producing the content) into the price paid by online only
> customers. This may make some customers think twice about moving
> to e-only.
>
> The justification you put forward for the pricing of the online
> version is that the online version provides added value. I accept
> that the online version does provide features not available in
> the print version, but I am surprised that the cost of providing
> these features is equivalent to the cost of providing a print
> copy. And one of the added benefits included in the online
> version, i.e. perpetual access rights, appears to customers not
> to be an added benefit at all, because it is included
> automatically in the print copy.
>
> Thomas Krichel wrote in response to my earlier post to Liblicense
> that "the issue for a publisher is to maximise profits, not align
> prices to costs". He may well be right. However, when publishers
> justify the prices they charge, they do so on the basis of costs.
> So what I am calling for from publishers is honesty: either be
> open about your costs, or else stop talking about costs and admit
> that all that matters to you is the "bottom-line".
>
> Fred Friend
> JISC Scholarly Communication Consultant
> Honorary Director Scholarly Communication UCL