0.7 Subscription options and pricing  (Page 2/10)

Member publication benefits

In practice, societies seem more likely to modify their member publication benefit than to increase member dues outright. The options a society will have for modifying its member publication benefit will depend on a variety of factors, including member tolerance for change and the nature of the society’s print publication program and benefits. Societies that publish multiple journals often offer cafeteria plans that allow a member to receive one or more journal subscriptions with their membership, and/or discounts on subscriptions to additional journals. Depending on a society’s publication program, it may have a variety of options for incorporating online access in its member benefit. These include:

1. Leaving individual member dues at their current level, and providing individual members with both print and online access to the journal. For most members, this will represent a net increase in the value of their membership. For academic members who have online access via institutional site licenses, this will represent an improved benefit if members have personalization features not available via institutional subscriptions. Providing society members with both print and online access to a journal without a change in the member dues is perhaps the most prevalent approach taken by societies. This approach provides society members with the best access option at a low incremental cost to the society.
2. Leaving individual member dues at their current level and giving members the option of receiving the journal either online-only or in print-only. Under this approach, individual members wanting the journal in both media would pay a dues surcharge (at, for example, a level equal to the marginal cost of providing the print subscription). The net revenue effect will depend on the proportion of the society’s membership with online access via online site licenses through their home institutions. Although some of the options above—for example, changing the member publication benefit from print to online-only—would not, strictly speaking, represent a dues increase, members might perceive a dues surcharge for continued receipt of the print edition as an effective dues increase.
3. Offering individual members online-only access to the journal at a slightly lower dues level that takes into account the cost savings to the society of not providing a print version of the journal. By setting the dues differential equal to the marginal cost of providing a print subscription, this approach can be constructed to be revenue neutral. Depending on the society’s objective, the differential can be set to generate a slight increase in net revenue for the society (by making the price differential less than the marginal cost of print). Whether this approach will generate additional revenue will depend on a variety of factors, particularly the proportion of the society’s members with online access to the journal via their employer. While offering online-only access as an option may appeal to some members, forcing members to change to online-only member subscriptions can be risky. Johnson and Luther cite several instances where societies experienced significant losses of membership and advertising revenue after changing their member benefit from print to electronic subscription. In the cases cited, the societies failed to analyze the attendant risk or anticipate potential membership reaction to the change. Johnson and Luther (2007), 26.
4. If a society publishes more than one journal, it can offer online access to some or all of the journals online, in lieu of a print subscription to a single journal. This approach can work well as long as enough of the society’s journals appeal to a cross-section of the membership. If the society’s journals appeal to limited and discrete classes of members, this offer might offer little value to a majority of the society’s membership.