UP 2.0: Some Theses on the Future of Academic Publishing
With the control of other media, including almost all the large trade book publishers, passing to international media conglomerates that ruthlessly put requirements for profit far above the social value of content, and the rise of web-based social networking sites draining advertising revenue from newspapers and magazines, university presses have become, almost by default, the primary source of robust information and sustained analysis on domestic issues such as poverty, education, public health, gun control, immigration, incarceration, civil liberties, and political democracy, as well as on the international issues, including ideological and religious struggles, human rights, torture, and economic development, that are so roiling the planet.
The problem now for UP 2.0 is to find the digital analogues and multidimensional digital enrichments for some or all of these functions. The future of the presses depends on successfully negotiating the digital transition with the support of university allies and cyberinfrastructure-supported connectivity. But there is a downside: if university presses fail in their metamorphosis to UP 2.0, they will almost certainly go the way of the actual dinosaurs (in the days before dinosaurs were deemed too big to fail), and likely will be replaced in the rapid evolution of scholarly publishing by more nimble, more adaptable, more imaginative—though not yet visible—digital shrews.
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