On 02/11/2004, at 5:01 PM, James Devenish wrote:
In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
on Tue, Nov 02, 2004 at 04:50:24PM +0800, Martin Hill wrote:
Am I alone in thinking publishers should charge less not more than
their printed versions for electronic versions of their publications
considering the savings on printing and distribution?
I don't know about periodical news publications in the US, but
international scientific journals often charge almost as much
for the online versions as for the print versions (and combined
print + online subscriptions are 1.7 to 2 times the cost of a
single-medium subscription).
The reason being that the Journals (and Papers) see it as a way to
increase income, without the extra overheads.
I heard the guy from the West on the radio trying to explain the high
price. They were using a very traditional business model. They
worked out the cost of the expensive e-publishing system they
purchased, estimated the number of current users who might use the
service and divided.
What they didn't consider was an alternative business model to serve
people like us, who might want online access to certain parts of the
paper at certain times. This market is potentially much bigger, if
the price is right, but the West was too shortsighted to see this.
I predict that another business will fill the gap, and the West's
print circulation will continue to fall. My 2c.
Cheers
Rob
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Dr Rob Phillips, Senior Lecturer, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Room 4.38 Teaching and Learning Centre, Library North Wing
Murdoch University, South St, Murdoch, 6150, Perth, Australia
Phone: +61 8 9360 6054 Mobile: 0416 065 054
Executive Member, Australasian Council on Open, Distance and E-learning (ACODE)
Chair, 2004 ASCILITE Conference,
http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/perth04/
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