July 31, 2007
Marketing for Eyeballs, Not Sales
After reading the “really sharp” Ithaka report on “University Publishing in a Digital Age” that was released last week, Caveat Lector shares some “drive-by thoughts” from a librarian’s point of view:
(1) Administrators need to get a clue. “Some provosts need to unpack their heads from their you-know-wheres. ‘Don’t change, university presses, we love you just the way you are—but don’t expect us to fund you unless you change, because you’re relics of a bygone age!’ Yeah, that’s a winner. I bet uni-press people are rolling their eyes right out of their heads at that one.”
(2) University presses aren’t much savvier. “I still have personal difficulty with all of this marketing-speak that presses are so concerned about. Monographs, OK, I get it a little—but what do they actually do other than send out review copies hither and yon? ... Journal marketing I don’t get at all, especially in an open-access environment. To whom are they marketing, and is it for eyeballs or sales? .... If you’re going to be a cost center, be a cost center—that means don’t sell stuff when you can avoid it, people, because when you do, the green eyeshades come after you!”
I understand that business-speak is what it is, but will someone please come up with a better phrase than “marketing for eyeballs”? It sounds like organ trafficking.
Jennifer Howard | Posted on Tuesday July 31, 2007 | Permalink
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