The State of the University Press
And while those dilemmas may sound familiar and perhaps even a bit shopworn, it's probably worth bearing in mind that university presses have historically been beholden to the mission of disseminating scholarship at all costs.
The mainstreaming of the open-access model, for instance, in which scholarly content is made available for free online, has sent the industry scrambling for viable internet-based business opportunities. And yet it certainly hasn't helped that the academic market in the United States has proven itself fairly resistant to the digital format. As a result, many presses today are struggling simply to stay in the black.
Dan Eldridge is a journalist and guidebook author based in Philadelphia's historic Old City district, where he and his partner own and operate Kaya Aerial Yoga, the city's only aerial yoga studio. A longtime cultural reporter, Eldridge also writes about small business and entrepreneurship, travel, and the publishing industry. Follow him on Twitter at @YoungPioneers.
