University Presses and the Digital Universe
Taking advantage of trends
While the challenges facing the university press segment are significant, the silver lining is that most of the challenges reflect changes in the market that have also created opportunity, says Maikowski, such as:
• “[online] social media networks creating huge demand for certain books;
• the emerging opportunities for all formats of Internet marketing and the [creation of online reader] communities;
• digital delivery of content, and new pricing models and experiments;
• short-run digital and POD printing capabilities;
• collaborating with libraries and other departments at [the press’s] parent institutions on new digital publishing projects; and
• an increased recognition among higher-education leaders of the need to better financially support scholars and scholarly publishing.”