Re: Rice U. Press

[James Jordan <jj2143@columbia.edu>]

I actually thought Doug Armato's response to this was spot on and 
more accurately states the dynamics in our academic press 
industry. Digital only as a strategy, especially with an open 
access mandate is not an obviously cost effective or sustainable 
proposition.  Good on them for trying.

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 19, 2010, at 7:28 PM, Joseph Esposito <espositoj@gmail.com>
wrote:

> The Chronicle is reporting that Rice U. Press is being shut down:
>
> http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Rice-U-to-Close-Its-Digital/26342/
>
> This is a sad development, but let's be careful not to draw the
> wrong conclusions from it.
>
> The Chronicle seems to think that the problem was that Rice was
> digital-only, ignoring its marketing model.  This is a red
> herring. There is much more to publishing than determining
> whether to publish in print or in digital form.
>
> We should expect to hear some people condemn Rice's open access
> model. I think that would be a mistake.  Here again, there are
> more things in heaven and earth, etc.  There is a place for
> economically compelling open access publication, and Rice's
> impatience in searching for that place does not mean that there
> are not many ways open access material can be made viable.
>
> Joe Esposito