A journal business model to replace the big deal?

In the mid-1990s the idea of offering library users a large package of journals at less cost than purchasing subscriptions separately seemed too good an opportunity to be missed, not only for librarians but also for publishers. The advent of the " Big Deal " promised a glorious future for users of journals, for publishers and for librarians. Why has the dream gone sour? As one who has shared and lived through both the euphoria and the scepticism about this particular business model, perhaps I can share some insights, not in order to cast blame (for I may be blaming myself) but in order that lessons may be learned in designing whatever new model for the publication of and access to journal literature is to succeed the Big Deal. On the negative side (I shall end on a positive note), the Big Deal has had unintended consequences. The cost of acquiring large packages of journals has consumed a larger and larger proportion of academic library budgets year by year, to the point where even the largest academic libraries have very little money left for the purchase of single journal subscriptions or research monographs or student textbooks. Not only has this unintended consequence changed the collection development strategies for academic libraries, but it has made life difficult for users of content not included in Big Deals. Humanities users in particular have lost out through the high expenditure on STM journals. Also losing out have been publishers of content not included in the Big Deals. The Big Deal model has not been a winning formula for the publishing industry as a whole. Another unintended consequence is that the large sums of money committed by libraries to Big Deals have made the Big Deal publishers attractive to investors looking for a secure return upon their investment, leading to mergers amongst those publishers who were seen to be benefiting from the Big Deal model. Those mergers have caused librarians many problems (I shall not go into detail because I promised not to cast blame) and have contributed to the current disillusionment with the Big Deal model. More positively, alternative models are being considered for reasons other than that the Big Deal has not lived up to its promise of win/win for all stakeholders. Perhaps the most significant factor is that the Big Deal has not proved able to change sufficiently to meet the new …