Learning to let go . . . Or How Freemium could be a fairer version of OA Toby Green Head of Publishing, OECD @tobyabgreen
Freemium Open Access Publishing - better than Green or Gold?
Sep 14, 2014
This presentation, given by Toby Green, OECD's Head of Publishing at SSP Boston, May 2014, presents an alternative vision for Open Access publishing. It argues that, unlike Green and Gold OA, Freemium is both more inclusive of reader needs and requires audience-building to work. The key argument is that full-text content should be free to all but that reader-facing services that surround the content could be charged for and the income used to pay for the free service in the first place. This leaves funders and taxpayers with the choice of having to pay for publishing costs in contrast to Green and Gold where the funder or taxpayer must pay for publishing costs. Freemium means readers retain a financial lever and stake in scholarly publishing, something they don't have in Green and Gold. The presentation uses OECD Publishing's experience as a Freemium OA publisher as case study. It includes examples of OECD's free READ editions which readers are encouraged to share and embed in their websites and blogs so that viral marketing can support OECD's efforts to build a large audience for its publications and thereby underpin the freemium business model.
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Transcript
Learning to let go . . . OrHow Freemium could be a fairer version of OA
Toby GreenHead of Publishing, OECD@tobyabgreen
“What’s a publisher’s role in today’s world?”
Open Access – find the missing words
movement
mandates
readersbooksdata
“If you make it open . . . they will come”
Open Access Mandates
disseminate“Thou shall deposit . . . and it will have impact”
Open Access business models summarised
Green
• Please post a version in a repository
• Sometime later will do• I hope a lot of readers will
benefit (although I have now given them a horrible user journey and taken away their economic ‘voice’)
• I don’t want to think about costs (or the impact it may have on journal or book publishing on which my reputation and career depends)
• But my conscience is clear
Gold
• I’ll foot the publishing bill• I hope a lot of readers will
benefit (although I have now taken away their economic ‘voice’)
• I don’t want to think about future costs
• But my conscience is clear
OECD Publishing’s mandate
MAXIMISE DISSEMINATION(i.e. everything has to be free)
FULL COST RECOVERY(i.e. everything needs to be priced)
$16.5M? ? ??
Accountable to our members on both mandates
So, how do we stay out of jail?
By using a:
• Freemium Open Access business model
Freemium ?
freemiumNOUN
A business model, especially on the Internet, whereby basic services are provided free of charge while more advanced features must be paid for.
Originearly 21st century: blend of free and premium.
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/freemium
Freemium is all about audience building and offering the option of moving up a value path
The Audience (formerly known as readers)
Anonymous Free
RegisteredFree Anonymous
PaidRegistered
Paid
To have enough of these . . .
. . . you need loads of these.
Therefore, audience-building is at the heart of Freemium Open Access
Freemium – it’s about the value proposition
A business model, especially on the Internet, whereby basic services are provided free of charge while more advanced features must be paid for.
Free Anonymous
Free Registered
Paid Anonymous
PaidRegistered
Discover and Read all content Share, embed content Personal services (e.g. alerts) Download, cut/paste content (PDF, ePub etc)
Librarian services
Freemium evolves
Needs
Time
PREMIUM
Read on PC
Save offline, copy-paste
Enhanced discovery
Download associated data (StatLinks)
Citation tools,
Text mining
Basic discovery
Read on tablets
Save in information management
systems
Share, Embed
ValueSupport for libraries
FREE
Simple
Complex
FREEMIUMPersonal services
But my audience is too small!
“The audience which finds your knowledge interesting and useful
is always larger than the audience you know.”
Did you know 80% of Americans
live within 15 miles of a Venti
Latte?
Audience building – how?
Source: Edible Geography http://www.ediblegeography.com/the-spatial-distribution-of-americans-in-relationship-to-starbucks/
How can we get OECD content into everyone’s online neighbourhood and workplace?
By doing all the usual discovery stuff . . .
Specialist bibliographic database10%
Library systems10%
Specialist portal (e.g. Repec)
6%
Content aggregator (e.g. Proquest)
9%
Community service (e.g. Mendeley)
6%Website managed by key authors in field
6%Author's website5%
Publisher's website14%
Email alerts14%
General web search (e.g. Google)
10%
Special web search (e.g. Scirus)10%
Source: Gardner and Inger (2012): How readers discover content in scholarly journals
. . . and using many delivery channels
For professionals . . .
. . . and the public
But we also have learned to let go
we now encourage anyone to read and then
share and embed our publications in
their websites and blogs for free
All the content is free to Read
Subscribers get access to the premium versions
(PDF, ePub, Excel)
Non-subscribers can purchase the premium versions too
Read versions are optimised for all devices . . .
Clicking ‘Link/Embed’ . . .
and then we let go . . .
No permission or license required . . .
Because it’s embedded, we know it’s there . . .. . . and we know the traffic too.
These buttons lead to the premium versions on our website.
. . . open to everyone, regardless . . .
Do we fulfil our mandates On dissemination? On cost recovery?
Dis
sem
inat
ion
(‘000
)
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 -
2,000
4,000
6,000
8,000
10,000
12,000
14,000
16,000
18,000
Each colour is a different service or
channel
And we recovered our (growing) publishing
costs in every year too.
In conclusion – Freemium - a better form of OA?
• Freemium means building an audience (You can be Free and not have an audience)
• Freemium keeps the audience in the driving seat(You can be Free and ignore audience needs)
• Freemium means innovation(You can be Free and stop innovating)
• Freemium delivers value for money(You can be Free and build services that no-one uses)
• Freemium gives taxpayers/funders a choice(To be Free taxpayers/funders must pay)
• Freemium is compatible with Gold – Funders can choose to make premium features free for everyone
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