The Oregon State Library subsidizes the cost of databases through NewsBank and EBSCO so that all Oregon libraries can provide their patrons access to online resources. It’s an incredible program.

The word is out that NewsBank recently tripled the price for OSL’s license to the Portland Oregonian, Oregon’s newspaper of record. OSL’s Statewide Database Licensing Advisory Committee recommended to the Oregon State Library Board of Trustees that they not renew at the inflated price and instead try negotiate a deal the next time around. The Board agreed, and OSL’s contract with NewsBank will end July 31.

Oregon libraries that want electronic access to the Oregonian now have to pay with their own arms and legs, though many probably won’t even want to. For a few of the bigger libraries around the state, this is a classic late-90s library school scenario: what if you go from collecting print and print indexes to licensing online content and the online content is suddenly no longer available?

Do we go back to creating our own indexes? Learn to search what little archives are available on the Oregonian’s website? Expand the use of library-to-library reference service and interlibrary loan?

One librarian suggested to me that we take our complaints to the Oregonian and ask for help. I am skeptical that anyone at the Oregonian has any power to do anything about the situation, and even more skeptical that the people that do have power really care. I think something more is going on, and I think mass action is required.

The Oregonian is just one of the papers owned by Advance Publications - you can recognize their papers online because they all use the same crappy formulaic website design.

From what I gather, Advance Publications sold exclusive electronic rights to NewsBank for several or all of their papers for a high price. Previously, the papers were available through ProQuest and Lexis-Nexis. A NewsBank employee at the American Library Association’s 2008 Annual Conference in Anaheim confirmed that libraries around the country are facing similar issues. He specifically cited libraries in New Jersey struggling to pay for another Advance Publications paper, which I think was the Newark Star-Ledger. In our case and theirs, because of Advance Publications’ high price, NewsBank “had” to raise the price, and so the cost went up.

I asked one librarian how NewsBank could not anticipate losing customers, and she replied that they would still probably be able to sell it to the biggest libraries. NewsBank will still make a profit, only, fewer people will have access to the material.

This may seem obvious, but I think the reason this is happening is that the Oregonian and Advance Publications are struggling, or at least, they are struggling to reach a higher profit margin:

• Oregonian staff tell me they are strongly encouraged to subscribe to the paper
• The Oregonian recently eliminated their afternoon edition
• Older staff were recently offered early retirement and the Oregonian is relying more on freelancers
• The Oregonian puts an edition of the paper in public newspaper boxes with a sensationalist front page, hoping to sell more copies

It follows that Advance is doing anything they can to make a buck. They’ve already spent the money on creating the content that makes up their archives, and the more they can sell it for, the better. I don’t object to the Advance Publications or NewsBank’s right to make a profit (not until after the revolution :O), but I think the business model they are forcing on their readers is contrary to newspapers’ mission of informing the public and the free exchange of ideas. Instead of the newspaper archive being for everyone, it is now only for the rich.

For Advance Publications, the digital newspaper archive is a potential source of profit. Contrast this with the New York Times and Washington Post’s websites, where digital archives are free for everyone. Those papers’ attitude is that their digital archives are a rich source of content to draw eyes to their websites and to sell advertising with, proving that it is possible to make money and provide a public service.

I’d love to see a national boycott of the electronic editions of Advance Publications’ papers through NewsBank. I know it might not matter to Advance (who is probably just as happy to sell more articles to individuals for $2.95), but it will matter to NewsBank and it matters to us. I’ll try to get the ball rolling.

In the meantime, if there’s something you’ve read in the Oregonian that you want to read again, or a topic in Oregon history you anticipate needing to research in the near future, visit your library’s website before July 31, 2008.