Last month, the Organization of American Historians announced that it had struck a deal with Oxford University Press to publish The Journal of American History, its flagship journal, and the OAH Magazine of History. The move is a significant change in publishing strategy for the organization, which has been self-publishing the two journals.

The Chronicle spoke with Edward T. Linenthal, the JAH's editor and a professor of history at Indiana University at Bloomington. Several factors prompted the move, he said. With more programs in American studies and American history cropping up in India, China, and other countries, the organization felt the time had come to find a publishing partner with a global reach, according to Linenthal. "It was past time for the JAH really to be linked with a worldwide publisher that could bring us the kind of marketing and expertise we had never, ever had in the history of the journal," he said.

The JAH has been published quarterly since 1914. Like many other venerable scholarly journals, it has seen its subscription numbers slip as membership in its parent society has declined and library acquisitions budgets have tightened. Linenthal said he is optimistic that with Oxford's help the JAH can reverse that decline, especially if it reaches more subscribers beyond the borders of the United States. "To have a press with the prestige and reach of Oxford University Press taking the leading journal in the field to these places is really exciting to think about," he said.

Nancy Croker, the OAH's director of operations, said in an interview that the group had gotten more than 20 bids from university presses and commercial publishers when it sent out a request for proposals. What made Oxford the winner? "More than anything it was their standing within the publishing field--the way the libraries viewed Oxford as being a good partner with them in terms of giving them the material they need," she said.

Another factor mentioned by Croker and Linenthal was the History Cooperative's decision to stop distributing electronic versions of journals, including the JAH. "The University of Illinois had been providing the platform and simply couldn't do it any more," Linenthal said. "So while the cooperative will remain in some form or other—editors thinking and talking together—we needed to look for a new platform."

The cooperative began life a decade ago as a joint venture among the OAH, the American Historical Association, the University of Illinois Press, and the National Academy Press. JSTOR later got involved. The idea was to pool enough resources to give journals "the time and exposure they needed to make the transition online," according to Willis Regier, the director of the University of Illinois Press. The cooperative now distributes almost 30 history journals in electronic form.

But it has been clear for some time that the partnership was not financially sustainable, Regier said. "We saw the writing on the wall some years ago," he said. At least with JSTOR now distributing current issues, the journals now distributed by the group should continue to have an electronic outlet. "So at least my conscience isn't stricken," he said.

Like Linenthal, Regier hopes that the editors involved in the History Cooperative will keep meeting. "What the editors got out of it was an awful lot of fellow feeling and foresight from meeting with each other on a regular basis," he said.

The cooperative will distribute a few journals electronically for another year or two. The first issue of JAH published through Oxford will appear in March 2011. "I hope it will be a long and fruitful partnership," Linenthal said.—Jennifer Howard