Publishing trends: 4 recommendations for scholarly and professional societies

Economic trends

In 2014, Outsell interviewed 20 scholarly and professional societies¹. They found that income from meetings was 14% and membership was 10%, while 61% of revenue at the societies they talked with was derived from publishing. But the economics of publishing are shifting, impacting the sources of that income.  

The foremost shift in scholarly publishing economics comes from open access. Publishers are seeing modest 2.5% growth in scholarly and research publishing revenues, largely institutional subscriptions². But the trend to watch from within those figures is the 34% growth in open access revenues. These take the form of article publication charges, paid by funders or institutions that mandate their research must be published “gold” open access³. Absent from these open access revenue growth figures, but an equally important driver of change and no less worthy of attention from society leaders, is “green” open access, again mandated by research funders.  

In society publishing, we’re seeing reasonable growth in advertising revenues at Wiley. PwC puts magazine advertising globally as scraping a return to growth in 2015, at less than 1%⁴. Our growth beats that comfortably. But the driving change, the trend to watch for advertising income, is in digital: PwC chalks-up growth in digital magazine advertising revenues at 17.6%. 

Leaders of scholarly and professional societies with a stake in research publishing need a way to handle open access, gold and green. And if their society banks advertising income from their magazine, then they need a way to handle digital adverts, too.
 

Tech trends

In April, the International Association of STM Publishers released a report, compiled from discussions with leaders from 26 publishing organisations, on the top 2015 Tech Trends: data, reputation management, and the “hub and spoke” model⁵. 

Data publishing refers to the emergence of research data as a bona fide research output, bringing with it the complexities of connecting data with other research outputs, measuring the contribution that data makes to research impact, and maintaining and preserving that data safely as part of the research record.

Reputation management refers to the role that publishing impact plays in research assessment, institutional funding, and hence in the careers of researchers (and society members). Tech solutions that impact here will deploy features for researchers at the article level. Startups Kudos⁶and Altmetric⁷, both working with Wiley, are developing solutions. And industry-wide initiatives like ORCiD will be foundational⁸.

The tech trend called “hub and spoke” is a mix of both the above, where the article-of-record is the center of a complex web of professional networks and data, impact measurements, media types (like video, software, datasets), versions, press coverage, and more. ReadCube, another partner for Wiley, may be a solution here⁹.

Communities and membership trends

Leaders of societies need to be ready to act when these trends mean something for their communities. So what do members think? 13,929 scholars and researchers, in the responses they shared in the 2014 Wiley Membership Survey, told us they put journals and magazines at #1 and #3 in their top 5 society benefits, alongside continuing education, standards, and conferences¹⁰. What’s more, non-members (or, perhaps, future members) told us they rank journals and magazines similarly: #2 and #3 in the top 5, along with continuing education, expert advice, and leadership experience. Even through a generational lens, journals and magazines rank well. 31% of our responses were from people born after 1980, Millennials, who’ve grown-up surrounded by digital media. They put a society journal at #2 and magazine at #5 of all the benefits their society provides¹¹. While all around us in the publishing world seems to be changing, members (and future members) continue to place great value in their society’s publishing program. 

So what’s a society to do? Four recommendations

Maybe Joe Esposito is right when he says “Professional societies have a tough slog ahead”¹².The economics of publishing are shifting, and demand our attention. Tech trends repeatedly add complexity, risk exposure to false-starts, and always require investments. Yet members continue to most value their society’s publishing program. While the here-and-now keeps our feet on the ground, the future beckons.

Deni Auclair makes four recommendations that provide leaders of societies with a way to chart their course¹. Here are the headlines.

1. First, know where you’re heading. Plan your publishing strategy. Set aside time, find the resources, and create the team you need to make sure your strategy, and plan, accommodates the publishing trends that matter for your members.
2. Second, experiment carefully. Consider how you need to evolve the products your members already value, to maintain their relevance and engagement, and to address the economic and tech trends that are driving change. Or create new products and services, equally carefully.
3. Third, recruit. Focus on growing your community, and on recruiting the trusted advisors you consult to chart your path. Engage the early career scholars and researchers, your emerging leaders.
4. Fourth, find the right partners. Consider what you might do with other societies, how startups or spinoffs might help. And consider how working with a publisher can help you make sense of the trends, and invest in the right ways to address them.  
5. Chris is the Director, Professional Innovations at Wiley, where he helps professional associations and societies to diversify their revenue, to deliver more value and new kinds of value to their members, and to develop and evolve their organizations so they are ready for the future.

[email protected]

References and Sources

1. Outsell, Professional Associations and Learned Societies: Current Issues and Outlook, http://www.outsellinc.com/store/products/1276 
2. RSI Content Solutions, Digital Publishing Sales: Revenue Forecasts That Even a CFO can Love, http://blog.reallysi.com/bid/77972/Digital-Publishing-Sales-Revenue-Forecasts-That-Even-a-CFO-can-Love 
3. Outsell, Open Access: Market Size, Share, Forecast, and Trends, http://www.outsellinc.com/store/products/1135 
4. PwC, Global Entertainment Media Outlook, http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/global-entertainment-media-outlook/index.jhtml 
5. STM Association, Technology Trends for 2015, http://www.stm-assoc.org/standards-technology/resources/tech-trends-2015/ 
6. Wiley, Wiley-Kudos Partnership Helps Authors Maximize Article Impact, http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/PressRelease/pressReleaseId-110363.html
7. Wiley Exchanges, Altmetric is now on board for all Wiley journals, http://exchanges.wiley.com/blog/2014/07/08/altmetric-is-now-on-board-for-all-wiley-journals/ 
8. ORCiD, https://orcid.org/content/initiative 
9. Wiley Online Library, Wiley offers Enhanced PDFs across Wiley Online Library in partnership with ReadCube, http://olabout.wiley.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-812239.html 
10. Wiley Exchanges, Society and Association Membership Survey 2014: Findings, http://exchanges.wiley.com/societies/membershipsurvey2014 
11. Wiley Exchanges, What membership benefits do Millennials value?, http://exchanges.wiley.com/blog/2015/05/06/what-membership-benefits-do-millennials-value/ 
12. Scholarly Kitchen, Open Access and Professional Societies, http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2013/08/01/open-access-and-professional-societies/