ASA launches campaign on late pricing
There has been a marked tendency in recent years for many publishers to price their journals and information services very much later than previously, sometimes as late as October for the following year's subscriptions. The ASA has always suggested that publishers should announce their prices by the end of July if possible and in any event no later than the end of August. This is in publishers' interests as well as those of the subscriber and the agent for the following reasons.
- Late pricing means agents are loading prices onto their systems at their busiest time of the year. Trying to hurry such price file maintenance may cause errors which will mean incorrect payments later.
- Subscribers cannot take informed decisions about subscribing to electronic only, print only or combination subscriptions without adequate and timely price information. Given that the pricing models for electronic journals vary so greatly, librarians too need more, not less time to consider their decisions.
- If prices are late, then the decision making process on which journals to renew, cancel etc will also be late and this will lead to late ordering and late payment. This in turn causes problems of availability and leads to unnecessary claims. Very late pricing risks the agent having to invoice clients at the previous years rate, and paying the publisher the wrong amount. This in turn causes costly and administratively complex supplementary invoicing and payments.
- In many cases it is simply impossible for libraries to make any supplementary payments, and this causes reduced revenues for publishers, reduced margins for agents and/or cancelled subscriptions.
- For all these reasons late pricing may lead to subscription breakdowns, lapsed subscriptions or cancellations - which is in nobody's interest.
For this reason the ASA is calling on all publishers and their representative bodies to do their utmost to ensure the publication of their price lists by the end of July each year. Where publishers have a few journals whose prices cannot be fixed by these dates, the other journals prices should be announced anyway to ensure that the majority can be processed properly and in time.
Further information from: Rollo Turner, Secretary General, ASA.
