Publicly-traded STM publishers grew 8.6% in their reported currencies in 2005; aggregate profit margins held steady at 25%
Thomson posted the strongest increase in profits with a year-over-year gain of 20.5%, outperforming its peers and the market average of 17.7%
Elsevier achieved the strongest organic growth: 5% and 6% in its Science & Technology and Health Sciences divisions, respectively
The five largest players (Reed Elsevier, Thomson, Wolters Kluwer, Springer, and Wiley) continued to acquire scale, and now account for over half (52.3%) of total market revenues
Revenues from digital content distribution may be nearing a tipping point: 60% of STM revenues, and close to 70% in S&T alone, are now derived from electronic products
Among the leading eight players, the pace of acquisitions increased modestly in 2005; Elsevier's purchase of MediMedia's European and U.S.
Netter professional medical publishing businesses for about USD336 million, and the completion of Thomson's acquisition of IHI for USD441 million were the two largest deals
The STM publishing and information services market is expected to reach USD10.8 billion in 2008, a 4% compound annual growth rate
Comment. I don't point out the 25% profit margins at commercial publishers of scholarly journals in order to argue gouging or monopoly, although there is clearly a case to be made there. I point it out to argue that an OA journal system will cost much less than what we pay now for the current system.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 7/14/2006 08:54:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
