Academic

More on The Decline of Print Journals: Northwestern's TriQuarterly

By Alfred Brophy

We've been talking for a long time about the declining fortunes of academic presses (OUP and CUP had layoffs at the beginning of the year; YUP laid off  staff later in the year; HUP shut its display room this summer; LSU Press had a near death experience this summer) and the shift to e-publishing (such as the University of Michigan Press' shift towards e-publishing).  Post-crash, things aren't looking good for the academy.  Of course, that was true even before the crash.

Now comes news that Northwestern's pretigious literary magazine TriQuarterly will cease print publication next year.   Here's more about the TriQuarterly, from its blog:

Founded in 1958 as a faculty and student magazine, TriQuarterly was reshaped in 1964 as an innovative national publication aimed at a sophisticated and diverse literary readership. The physical aspect of many literary journals today derives from the creation of the TriQuarterly design in 1964. The New York Times called TriQuarterly ?perhaps the preeminent journal for literary fiction? in America, and the Times Literary Supplement (London) has said that TriQuarterly ?fulfilled the classic function of the literary magazine in the twentieth century.? Library Journal called TriQuarterly ?the premier literary review currently being published,? and Publishers Weekly noted that the twentieth-anniversary issue?s ?table of contents is a roster of some of the leading writers of our era.?

This raises a really important question: how many other print journals will follow this route? I'm guessing a lot.  My second question: how quickly will other major journals shift to e-publishing?

As a close follower of the history of the book literature, it seems to me that one important lesson is that print confers status.  But then again, one of the reasons print confers status is that print is expensive.  And in this new world of significantly tighter budgets, I'm not sure that we can afford luxury.

Full post as published by The Faculty Lounge on September 25, 2009 (boomark / email).