In the publishing world, it is common to issue a book first in hardback then in paperback. By packaging the product in two different forms, the publisher has managed to get the consumers to self-select according to their willingness to pay. The practice This small bit of economic theory is important for understanding the issues facing academic societies who wish to deliver electronic versions of their journals. In most current pricing schemes, members either get the journals as part of their membership fee or pay special individual rates. Non-members are serviced by libraries who pay a different, and normally higher, rate.
Members are, of course, free to use the library copy of the journal.
But the convenience of having their own copy for ready access is apparently more attractive than the inconvenience of accessing the library's copy. In journal publishing the inconvenience of walking to the library is the equivalent of the Saturday night stayover for the airlines. It is then no longer as inconvenient to access the library copy, and some members will no doubt decide to cancel their memberships or subscriptions, thereby reducing the revenue for the publisher. This financial risk is very apparent to many professional societies and academic publishers, and it makes them reluctant to offer electronic versions of their journals. The way to deal with it is to make the member's subscription sufficiently more attractive than accessing the library's subscription so that the member finds it worthwhile to continue to pay the membership fee or individual subscription charge.