Re: Rice U. Press

[Sandy Thatcher <sandy.thatcher@alumni.princeton.edu>]

A fuller account, with a long comment from me, appears in today's 
InsideHigherEd: 
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/08/20/rice

Sandy Thatcher


>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