In the Basic Paper World

Many journals have offered reduced prices to individuals. In the case of journals owned by societies or other organizations, there are generally further reductions in the prices for members. It is important to the society that members not only receive the lowest price but can clearly see that price as a benefit of membership. The price for members may be at marginal cost, particularly if (1) the size of the membership is large, (2) subscriptions are included as a part of the membership dues, and (3) there is advertising income to be gained from the presence of a large individual subscription base. This third factor is commonly seen in clinical medical journals, where the presence of 15,000 or 30,000 or more individual subscribers leads to more than $1 million in advertising income-income that would be near zero without the individual subscription base. Publishers can "afford" to sell the subscriptions at cost because of the advertising.

For many other journals, including most published by my company, there either are no individual rates or the number of individual subscribers is trivial. This

is largely because the size of the journals, and therefore their prices, are sufficiently high (average $1,600) that it is difficult to set a price for individuals that would be attractive. Giving even a 50% reduction in price does not bring the journal into the price range that attracts individual purchasers.

One alternative is to offer a reduced rate for personal subscriptions to individuals affiliated with an institution that has a library subscription. This permits the individual rate to be lower, but it is still not a large source of subscriptions in paper. The price is still seen as high (e.g., the journal Gene has an institutional price of $6,144 in 1997 and an associated personal rate of $533; the ratio is similar for Earth and Planetary Sciences Letters -$2,333 for an institutional subscription, $150 for individuals affiliated with that institution.) This alternative still draws only a very limited number of subscribers.

We have not recently (this decade) rigorously tested alternative pricing strategies for this type of paper arrangement nor talked with scientists to learn specifically why they have or have not responded to an offer. This decision not to do market research reflects a view that there is only limited growth potential in paper distribution and that the take-up by individuals (if it is to happen) will be in an electronic world.