As far as I can judge, if the subscription rate were doubled, the journal could give up its subsidy, provide a salary for the editor and just about break even. Those profits are paid for not only by the libraries but by the research community as well. Libraries that feel financially squeezed regularly survey their users asking for suggestions of which journals to drop. Keeping a journal with an exorbitant subscription rate may necessitate dropping subscriptions to as many as ten other journals. Thus, one of the costs to the research community is in the amount of research information that is immediately accessible.
Researchers are the authors, editors and peer reviewers for the journals.
The product of our efforts provides the content of the journals yet it is contributed at no cost to the publishers. For that reason we are in a unique position to put pressure on the publishing houses to become more accountable for their actions. One way of doing that is the following. My own feeling is that, starting immediately, all of us should withhold manuscripts and refuse to act as reviewers for such a journal until the publisher lowers his subscription rate to a reasonable level. To those of you who may find that suggestion to be extreme, I would remind you that it is not a question of denying the publishers a reasonable profit.