Is Small Beautiful? The Position of Independent Scholarly Publishers in an Environment of Rapid Industry Consolidation

The publishing industry continues to consolidate, with large multinational publishers acquiring journals and other content from academic societies and independent publishers. This panel provided candid insights into the challenges facing smaller publishers, including how/why they continue to exist in a business environment increasingly dominated by large companies. The discussion examined the advantages that smaller, independent publishers enjoy and addressed their adaptation strategies, business planning (including open versus paid access models), strategic partnerships, technical infrastructure, production procedures, relationships with libraries, and the work needed to meet the evolving needs of library end users. The impact of industry consolidation on libraries, including that of the intermediaries between publishers and libraries, was also discussed. The panel included speakers from humanities, social science, and science publishers who provided a range of perspectives from across the disciplines