In this commentary Ella Colvin, Academic Journals Director reflects on the many changes affecting our publishing partners and the importance of working together towards a common goal of sustainability.

As our journals transition their research content to being fully open access, key revenue lines such as traditional subscriptions, licensing and advertising are under real pressure. We’re in the midst of supporting partners through this transition, briefing them on global changes to the market, new business models and the push from more and more authors to publish open access and what this means longer-term for their publishing revenues.

Where these changes are likely to result in lower revenues, we’re encouraging partners to consider a variety of streamlining initiatives and to consider print reduction to save costs. We’re being honest about cost saving opportunities. We also have a responsibility to highlight the environmental impact of continuing to provide print access in such volumes. We’re working on calculations to size the carbon emissions generated by each society’s print run as currently partners have no sense of their impact.

Some partners fear a move away from print because of their historic reliance on bundled and print subscriptions and for some these subscriptions continue to generate significant revenues. Others with large memberships see print copies as a key membership benefit and are nervous that their membership proposition will be undermined if they move to offering online-only access. Many members also have online access via their institutions while high production and print values have further elevated the perceived value of paper copies. Societies ultimately don’t want to shrink, become less representative of their community and lose revenues for key activities.

In response the team is supporting society partners to confront market and model changes and revenue impacts, undertaking detailed conversations about strategies that include print and digital access. Recent experience of disrupted print distribution has underscored our narrative about the resilience of online over print distribution. We also believe that societies can enhance the value of membership in moving online because we can include access to the entire back run of the journal if desirable. Unlocking personal access and discoverability of the full archive is a wonderful member benefit.

Thankfully many societies and members are also increasingly concerned about their personal environmental impact and some are taking leading positions on print reduction. We’re in a position to share their ideas for inspiring members to move online with partners who are more cautious about reviewing print strategy.

Read more about how and why we are reducing print.