NYTimes: Reed Elsevier's Online Ads

["Ann Okerson" <aokerson@gmail.com>]

Of possible interest and a model to watch.  What happens to 
liblirary subscriptions?  Will we need them?  For whom, at what 
price, etc?  Ann Okerson

_______________________________

<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/10/business/media/10journal.html>


September 10, 2007
A Medical Publisher's Unusual Prescription: Online Ads
By MILT FREUDENHEIM

By some measures, the medical publishing world has met the advent 
of the Internet with a shrug, sticking to its time-honored 
revenue model of charging high subscription fees for specialized 
journals that often attract few, if any, advertisements.

But now Reed Elsevier, which publishes more than 400 medical and 
scientific journals, is trying an experiment that stands this 
model on its head. Over the weekend it introduced a Web portal, 
www.OncologySTAT.com, that gives doctors free access to the 
latest articles from 100 of its own pricey medical journals and 
that plans to sell advertisements against the content.

The new site asks oncologists to register their personal 
information. In exchange, it gives them immediate access to the 
latest cancer-related articles from Elsevier journals like The 
Lancet and Surgical Oncology. Prices for journals can run from 
hundreds to thousands of dollars a year.

Elsevier hopes to sign up 150,000 professional users within the 
next 12 months and to attract advertising and sponsorships, 
especially from pharmaceutical companies with cancer drugs to 
sell. The publisher also hopes to cash in on the site's list of 
registered professionals, which it can sell to advertisers.

Mainstream publishers have wrestled for years with the question 
of how to charge for online content in a way that neither 
alienates potential readers nor cannibalizes their print 
properties. So far, few definitive answers have emerged. Reed 
Elsevier, which is based in London, is taking a risk that its 
readers will drop their paid subscriptions and switch allegiance 
to the new Web site, which will offer searches and full texts of 
the same content from the moment of publication.

"It's a calculated risk, a bold step into the unknown," said Dan 
Penny, a senior analyst in London at Outsell, a market research 
firm.

[SNIP]

Copyright 2007 The New York Times