Why Was Springer Nature’s IPO Withdrawn?
In Springer Nature’s “botched” IPO, did the market see it as one of the publishers at risk of being left behind by real innovation in scholarly communication and research workflow?
Publishing Continues to Outperform Perception
Publishers have shown themselves to be resourceful, navigating troubled waters to growth and profitability.
The Supercontinent of Scholarly Publishing?
Instead of the rich and seamless digital library for scholarship that they need, researchers today encounter archipelagos of content bridged by infrastructure that is insufficient and often outdated. Researchers need a supercontinent. Will it be Elsevier, Digital Science, Clarivate, ResearchGate, or someone else? And what does this mean for other publishers?
If ResearchGate is Where Authors Connect and Collaborate …
The recently announced agreement between ResearchGate and Springer Nature, Cambridge University Press, and Thieme demonstrates that there is not a uniformity of perspective in the publishing community about article sharing on ResearchGate, or presumably on the many other scholarly collaboration networks that exist. It also signals that ResearchGate, a decade-old start-up disruptor with with venture capital investment and a rapidly grown user base, has taken its place at the negotiating table and found not just enemies but allies.
Why Don’t Societies Simply Sell off Their Publishing Assets?
Society publishers resist the sale of their publications to bidders from the commercial world because they view the publications as a central component of the society itself.
Everything* You Always Wanted To Know About Blockchain (But Were Afraid To Ask)
Love it or loathe, blockchain is making the headlines everywhere! But what exactly is it? Does it really have a role to play in scholarly communications? If so, what and how? In this interview, Joris van Rossum (Digital Science) and Martijn Roelandse (Springer Nature) answer these questions and more.
Consolidation in Academic Publishing Has a New Target
Research publishers may acquire textbook publishers in order to increase market share in libraries with inclusive access programs
Who Owns Digital Science?
In the shift beyond content licensing and towards supporting researcher workflow, Elsevier has few competitors. A key question is whether Digital Science and SpringerNature should be understood strategically as one company, or two. Who owns Digital Science?
Publishing the 23andMe Way, Part Two: The New Data Publishing Business
23andMe presents an interesting model for STM publishers on how to enter a new and lucrative market for data publishing.
Scientific Reports Overtakes PLOS ONE As Largest Megajournal
The open access megajournal is a proven success, but its future may lie in the hands of commercial entities.
When is a Publisher not a Publisher? Cobbling Together the Pieces to Build a Workflow Business
As growth in content licensing slows, sophisticated content providers are building businesses supporting researcher workflow and university business processes.
What the Heck is Amazon up to Now?
Although Amazon is a central player in many areas of publishing and media, it is hard to predict where it will head next. This makes it hard to plan to compete with it. On the other hand, Amazon has some typical ways that it behaves when it enters a market and strategic planners can learn from them.
Winning Strategies for Journal Publishers
Although we in scholarly publishing typically focus on the problems we face, there is a small group of highly successful journal publishers. These publishers fall into three broad categories. To a great extent, these publishers are resistant to challenge.
Libraries and Consortia in the Context of a Publisher’s Strategy
Professional societies are facing growing resistance to place their publications in libraries. This results in these societies seeking arrangements with the largest commercial publishers, whose sway with libraries and especially library consortia is significant. Libraries have demonstrated a clear preference to work with the larger publishers over the smaller ones. This leads to increasing concentration and market power in the academic publishing industry.
What They Still Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School
A recent article about the publishing industry confuses the various business segments and offers prescriptions that are largely irrelevant to the task of running a publishing enterprise.