From: Anthony Watkinson <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2011 20:25:02 +0000

Publishers depend on their authors and editors and also on their customers.
It is in their interest not to antagonise either creators or users. In the
end librarians can revolt and are doing so - not for the first time. It
looks as if this has worked in the UK as it worked to some extent when Chuck
Hamaker and others mounted the price wars back in the 80s.

Actually it does not matter whether they (the publishers concerned) are
for-profit (main stakeholder = shareholders) or not-for-for profit (main
stakeholder = members or in some cases universities).

Sandy (I think) considers the sort of university presses he has worked in
for years somehow pure and special because they make a loss. Am I wrong? I
find this to be a common view in the US

I do not think the books he has published are any better than the books I
used to publish when I was mathematics editor at OUP. The calculations of
profit (surplus) and loss were much the same as they were at Academic Press
where I was before I moved to OUP. OUP was better run on the whole or at
least their systems were better. My mission was the same in both companies:
it was to produce good books which the market wanted and make money out of
them.

I agree with him that librarians have to realise that publishers all have to
make money or accept subsidies whereas librarians have to do their best with
the budget they receive

Anthony

-----Original Message-----
From: LibLicense-L Discussion Forum [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of LIBLICENSE
Sent: 13 December 2011 02:11
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Future of the Subscription Model

From: Sandy Thatcher <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Sun, 11 Dec 2011 21:25:01 -0600

I'm not sure why making money for your stockholders--which is what
commercial companies are supposed to do--should be called "avaricious"
behavior.  These are not non-profit, mission-driven organizations;
they are businesses out to make as much profit as the market will
bear.  Lowering prices would be rational for them to do only if they
could gain greater market share by doing so and hence enhance overall
revenues.  Librarians need to stop thinking that commercial publishers
are, like them, public servants; they do what they do to make more
money for their investors, and they succeed or fail on that basis and
that basis alone. If librarians want to change the game, they should
stop giving in every time one of the commercial publishers offers a
special discount, under the veil of an NDA, to induce continued
subscription to a Big Deal. Commercial publishers know how to play
this game well, and they seem to win out every time.

Sandy Thatcher