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May 17, 2016

Proceedings of the Natural Institute of Science | Volume 3 | SCI-NEWS 13

Wiley-Blackwell launches ‘cheese-stuffed’ journals in effort to increase print subscriptions

HOBOKEN, NEW JERSEY – Wiley-Blackwell, publisher of more than 1,000 scientific publications, has announced that it will begin selling cheese-stuffed versions of select academic journals. The new publishing campaign, called ‘Cheesy Journalesey!^©’, is slated to begin in July of this year.

Wiley-Blackwell stressed that the cheese-stuffed journals will only be available in print editions and will not be accessible online. Thus, many experts see this move as an attempt to boost sagging print subscription numbers and combat the rise in online article usage. “The Internet has increased access to scientific journal articles, made them cheaper, and made them easier to search and index,” said Peter Allendale, librarian at Rutgers University. “But, the Internet can’t melt cheese in your journal articles, and Wiley-Blackwell is gambling that scientists’ desire for melted cheese will surpass all the benefits of online-access.”

Other experts see this new campaign as a way for journals to demonstrate their value to the scientific community. “It’s getting easier and easier for scientists to self-publish and self-post their research and data and bypass scientific publication journals altogether,” said Allendale. “The ‘Cheesy Journalesey!^©’ campaign will show that there are now two main benefits of academic publishing companies: archiving of research and providing cheese.”

Initially, stockholders were wary of potential increased publication costs from inserting cheese into journals. However, these fears were put to rest when Wiley-Blackwell decided that the costs of the cheese would be passed on to authors, much like the majority of publication costs.

“Authors will be given the option to have Wiley-Blackwell melt cheese somewhere in the middle of their articles,” said Clay Stobaugh, Chief Marketing Officer at Wiley-Blackwell. “This cheese option will cost $1000 per page, and $1500 per page if the author chooses one of our artisan cheeses.”

In the wake of today’s announcement, John Wiley & Sons stock surged by 3.45%.

 

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