AGU Proprietary and Confidential

So You Want To Get Out Of Print?

Bill CookPublications Committee Meeting

April 19, 2011

WHY?

AGU Proprietary and Confidential

• 23,000 journals worldwide• 8,700 journals included in ISI Journal Citation database —

5,900 are in the Science Edition

• Virtually all science journals now available electronically• In most cases the electronic version is the “Version of Record”• Approximately 10% of journals but only 2–5% of articles are

publicly available without access control

Publishing Environment

All data from STM 2006 White Paper, Scientific Publishing in Transitionhttp://www.stm-assoc.org/2006_09_01_Scientific_Publishing_in_Transition_White_Paper.pdf

AGU Proprietary and Confidential

• Subscriptions up 9% to 22,704 (all types)– Print• Subscriptions down 27% to 3,830 (individual and

institutional)• Revenue down 20%

– Electronic + Print Add-on• Subscribers down 19% to 1,419

– Electronic only• Subscribers up 25% to 17,455• Revenue up 32%

AGU data

AGU Proprietary and Confidential

• Began publishing in print in 1896• Began publishing online in 2002• Announced print discontinuation in July 2008– Steep decline in print for last several years

• Announced continuation of print in February 2010

AGU background

AGU Proprietary and Confidential

• Infrastructure• Access throttled• Archive

So why continue to print?

In other words, the market demands it!

AGU Proprietary and Confidential

So why continue to print?

AGU Proprietary and Confidential

• Declining subscriptions, less revenue, fewer copies• Can’t get a big price increase?• Reduce costs! But stay in the game– Reduce pages– Use modern print technology– Reduce copies– Outsource – shift the risk

Continue to Print!

AGU Proprietary and Confidential

Reduce Pages

Cut the number in half

AGU Proprietary and Confidential

Reduce Pages

Archive (library) copy

AGU Proprietary and Confidential

Reduce Pages

And differentiate

AGU Proprietary and Confidential

Reduce Pages

Reading (individual) copy

AGU Proprietary and Confidential

• Digital presses are much less expensive– Have to be small runs of few pages– Use in conjunction with “Condense and Rotate”

Use Modern Print Technology

AGU Proprietary and Confidential

• Fulfill subscriptions• Next greater cost is from claims• With reduced pages comes reduced weight• Send each copy with return receipt requested– At least to international customers• Even if they drop ship to a US address; drop ship agents are

the largest source of claims

Cut the Copies

AGU Proprietary and Confidential

• Why do you have to manage the print?• Some international agents want to do this– Let them manage it, receive a royalty– You manage it, pay a commission

• Send formatted PDF files

Outsource

AGU Proprietary and Confidential

• Subs will likely continue to decline• Eventually prices will have to rise again– If you can get a fair price for a single copy, why

wouldn’t you produce it?• The last customer will have to make a choice

What’s the End Game?

In other words, let the market decide!

AGU Proprietary and Confidential

So You Want To Get Out Of Print?

Bill CookPublications Committee Meeting

April 19, 2011

WHY?