Hello fellow law librarians,
Regarding the West pricing thread, I can't decide whether some of the posters are in denial of the situation or whether they are trying to be diplomatic to a fault. First of all, the focus should be on *West* and its outrageous price increases. This approach of "fairness" by also bringing in Lexis and other lawbook publishers for any Hot Topic discussion because we don't want to single out West as a bad guy is ludicrous. West is the focal point here. I don't see Lexis or any other lawbook publisher imposing 10% or higher price increases on an annual basis so let's stay focused on West here.
As for the idea of the Hot Topic, what is hoped to be achieved? What do you think will be done as a result? Otherwise, it is just talk, talk, talk. If you think West will do the "reasonable thing" and stop these price increases, I do not think that is realistic. It is in Thomson/West's mindset that profit margins for the U.S. market are not high enough compared to the European market and they see no reason for that discrepancy. The price increases will continue until something is done to stop them. That "stop" in price increases can be competition, loss of customers who find the high cost is not worth the benefit, loss of authors who decide to publish elsewhere because they are not getting a cut of these big profits, etc. In other words, the ONLY way these price increases are going to stop is when West is hurt in the pocketbook because of them. To librarians, the "right thing" is to have reasonable price increases. To West, the "right thing" is to maximize profits. We librarians need to understand where West is coming from and strategize accordingly.
So how do we hit West in the pocketbook? I think we begin with educating our membership about the true costs for major sets of books with multiple types of updates (pocket parts, revised volumes, general index volumes, etc.) and all other treatises. At a minimum, our membership should stop purchase of all "interim pamphlets" and all of these specialized, "creative" tables -- we do not need them. With knowledge of the true costs, we have the ability to apply a cost-benefit ratio (cost of product versus value of use) and can evaluate our options for turning to Westlaw or a competitor's product instead. I am banking that with enough cancellations of print subscriptions and reliance on Westlaw or another source for the information, West will re-think its marketing strategy. Won't this lead to higher costs for remaining print subscribers? Yes, but I think that will last only temporarily. I suspect the Westlaw side of the accounting books gets a free ride on production costs for treatises that are added to Westlaw. West needs to rebalance its accounting so that Westlaw pays a fairer portion of production costs for this material and the entire burden does not fall on the print subscribers. If West does not take this step, they will soon reach the point of losing too many print subscribers to sustain the publication. Even if they revise their accounting procedures at that point, it will be too late because those print subscribers who cancelled will be gone forever. Westlaw will then bear the entire cost of production of a former print product. (Note: I will assume for the present that West intends to retain its print product line as opposed to seeing an inevitable end to it, i.e., everything will be on Westlaw instead, and thus using these price increases as a final flameout.)
Once we have the supplementation cost information, then we should analyze the rate of West's price increases, both per title and overall. I think both are important because I have noticed that West does things in waves, e.g., it will focus on one particular title and do a major revision of it with a change in format or new tables or lots of revised volumes or whatever creative way they have come up with to "enhance" the product. By performing both analyses, West cannot claim that increased costs were a blip on the screen because one or two titles had out-of-the-ordinary upkeep costs because of a revision. Armed with that knowledge, let's compare it to a few things. Let's compare it to the cost of using that print product on Westlaw. In other words, how many Westlaw search transactions can one do for a print product if one spent their money there rather than on the upkeep cost. I just tallied the cost of what I spent on Am Jur2d in 2005 and it came to $4221.26. I can buy a lot of Westlaw searches in AMJUR for that kind of money. Let's also compare it to the competition. Let's identify comparable competitors' products and make it easier for our membership to see that they have choices/alternatives that might meet their research needs. There is no "apples-to-apples" comparison possible here. Even if you can find products with the same number of volumes on the same topic to compare against each other, the quality may differ but at least librarians would have a starting point for checking out competing products that may be cheaper. Obviously, Lexis, BNA and all of you other lawbook publishers out there reading this, it will be VERY important for you to put the tables of contents of your books on your website so it is easier for librarians to see if your product is a worthy substitute. Don't make us struggle to give you business.
How are we going to get this price information if West will not give it to us? We do not need West for this -- we have it already in our files! I know CRIV working with the AALL membership and, in particular, the tech services SIS, can compile this information. Just eliminate the smoke created with these subscription contracts and other special deals and get "subscriber" prices (I think it's a 20% discount off of retail but I could be wrong) since few libraries pay full retail. If West does not like that approach, too bad. They had their chance to supply the information. A possible bonus is that the folks with subscription contracts covering lots of titles may discover that they are not getting any real deal. Turn to the major law libraries for price information for the big title stuff like Am Jur2d since they most likely have software programs that can easily produce it. Turn to the law firm and public law libraries for upkeep costs of treatises that are more likely to be there than in an academic law library. We law librarians did it before for the Price Index folks and we can do it again. We need to take control of this situation -- we are not helpless in this!
And then we take the offensive. We start talking to authors of West treatises who work in our places of employment. First, we educate them about these upkeep costs, particularly for the title that they authored because they probably have no idea. If libraries are either not purchasing their book because of high upkeep costs or cancelling it later on, the author needs to hear that. After all, they want people to read their book. Tell them about West's marketing approach to increasing revenue by doing things like converting a treatise into an annual volume, e.g. Mallen & Smith's Legal Malpractice is now an annual treatise, and the cost impact of those changes. Tell them about the extraordinary price increases that have been going on for several years. Tell the author that law librarians, as part of a strategy to control upkeep costs, are approaching the authors directly about this matter just like the academic librarians did with their professors in dealing with the high costs of journal subscriptions and who got results. Encourage the author to consider publishing with another publisher if West is not willing to relent on its pricing scheme and then volunteer to locate possible publishers. Talk to future authors who might be considering West as their publisher and educate them.
Boycotting receptions and turning down dollar bills for wearing a lapel pin just are not going to cut it here for dealing with this situation. Those are petty things for a multi-BILLION dollar corporation. As for a "tarnished reputation" vis-à-vis it should be ashamed of itself for its exorbitant price increases, West probably does not see it that way. It just sees it as normal course of business. The tarnished reputation moniker would get more of a reaction from them if it applied to the quality of its products. Only "hitting the pocketbook" works here. For those who were around for the dramatic Bender treatise price increases back in the 1980s, it was only by massive cancellations that Bender got the message and it was thanks to Ken Svengalis' analysis of the situation and his suggestions that got us through that crisis. Thank you, Ken, for that insight and guidance, and thank you for bringing the current situation to a national venue to talk about it.
Nanna Frye, Law Librarian
Court of Appeal
San Diego, CA
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