1. Society of Scholarly Publishing
June 2, 2004
San Francisco
Pricing Electronic
Content: Project MUSE®
Aileen M. McHugh
Director of Project MUSE
http://muse.press.jhu.edu
The Johns Hopkins University Press
amm@mail.press.jhu.edu

2. What is Project MUSE®?
• A collection of more than 250 journals in the arts,
humanities, and social sciences from more than 40
publishers.
• Launched in cooperation with the Milton S.
Eisenhower Library, and later the 11 founding
publishers, by The Johns Hopkins University
Press? America’s oldest university press, dating to
1878.

3. Project MUSE® Funding
• Launch was funded by $720,000 in grants
from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and
the National Endowment for the Humanities.
• Original mission was to publish
electronically the journals of The Johns
Hopkins University Press

4. Important Milestones
• 1998? PM operating at breakeven
• 1999? 11 other publishers joined PM and
the number of journals jumps from 42 to
more than 100
• 2004? more than 40 publishers and 257
journals

5. Project MUSE® 2004
• 95% renewal rate
• 82% domestic, 18% foreign
• Relationships with 40 consortia worldwide
• 9 million worldwide have access

6. Case history in e-pricing
• Muse and the consortia “grew up” together
• Relationship was mutually beneficial
• Consortia and e-distribution opened up new
markets domestically and internationally
• Consortia discounts worked initially
because e-content was incremental
revenue

7. How is e-pricing different?
• Need a lot of customer data to determine a price
• New functionality, eg, usage statistics, perpetual
access to purchased content, CrossRef, tools
• Sales more important than marketing
• Licenses needed
• User services and sales work together
• Customer service much more technical

8. Model Became Unsustainable
• Consortia mergers led to high volume
discounts
• Print cancellations escalated
• Full Collection grew too large, and
scope of journals became uneven
• Libraries began canceling “Big Deals”

9. What Next?
• Worked with October Ivins and Judy Luther
to develop new e-pricing models that meet
the needs of librarians and publishers
• Pricing, though, not enough!
• Need to also re-engineer publisher
royalties, collection development standards,
fulfillment, and customer and publisher
relationship management

10. Methodology
• Interviews with publishers
• Interviews with 19 major influencers in library
purchasing
• Open hearing at ALA Midwinter
• Focus groups with librarians
• Web survey of >200 customers

11. What did we consider?
•
• Who are the primary and secondary domestic and
Who are the primary and secondary domestic and
international markets in order of priority?
international markets in order of priority?
•
• How does each customer group want to buy the content?
How does each customer group want to buy the content?
•
• How do the publishers, societies, and authors want to sell the
How do the publishers, societies, and authors want to sell the
content?
content?
•
• What fulfillment capabilities are needed to implement the
What fulfillment capabilities are needed to implement the
pricing? What capability is available and affordable in the
pricing? What capability is available and affordable in the
short term and in the long term?
short term and in the long term?
•
• What are the distribution channels for each customer group?
What are the distribution channels for each customer group?

12. The Results
• Primary customers are libraries at doctoral and
bacculaureate liberal arts institutions
• Doctoral institutions want individualized packages,
whereas bacculaureate liberal arts institutions
prefer collections
• Publishers want to sell their content in collections
• Fulfillment system supports collections and flex
plans for groups, not individual libraries
• Distribution channels are consortia

13. Preliminary Solutions to Pricing
•
• Replace consortia volume discounts with a more customized
Replace consortia volume discounts with a more customized
pricing grid:
pricing grid:
–
– Use tiers based on the Carnegie classification of
Use tiers based on the Carnegie classification of
institutions of higher education
institutions of higher education
(www.carnegiefoundation.org)
(www.carnegiefoundation.org)
–
– Use COUNTER-compliant usage quartiles to address
Use COUNTER-compliant usage quartiles to address
different levels of usage among similarly classed
different levels of usage among similarly classed
institutions
institutions
•
• Limit package price increases
Limit package price increases
•
• Move to more customizable packages and smaller collections
Move to more customizable packages and smaller collections
•
• Communicate changes individually to subscribers and review
Communicate changes individually to subscribers and review
options with them
options with them

14. Solution to Uneven Content
•
• In the short term, develop multidisciplinary collections with
In the short term, develop multidisciplinary collections with
appropriate price points for the research, four-year college,
appropriate price points for the research, four-year college,
and community college markets. Use criteria for collections.
and community college markets. Use criteria for collections.
•
• Instead of continuing to expand existing packages, offer new
Instead of continuing to expand existing packages, offer new
packages
packages
•
• Consider subject-specific packages? but don’t make
Consider subject-specific packages? but don’t make
customers of different packages pay twice for same content
customers of different packages pay twice for same content
•
• Long-term goal is customizable packages for each library.
Long-term goal is customizable packages for each library.
Considerable costs for fulfillment software, accounting, and
Considerable costs for fulfillment software, accounting, and
training.
training.

15. Current Flex Plan
• A group of five or more libraries can
order a custom package
• Custom packages have higher price
because of customer service set-up
and maintenance

16. The Future of E-pricing?
•
• Will depend on the content and the discipline
Will depend on the content and the discipline
•
• Flexible and customized pricing will increase for all e-content,
Flexible and customized pricing will increase for all e-content,
which will in turn require nimble fulfillment systems
which will in turn require nimble fulfillment systems
•
• For some content, customization will justify higher prices
For some content, customization will justify higher prices
•
• Sales through discovery tools such as Google will increase
Sales through discovery tools such as Google will increase
•
• Publishers will seek new markets outside the domestic
Publishers will seek new markets outside the domestic
academic library community
academic library community