Ad-driven Publishing
One of the most recent developments in not only scholarly publishing, but also mainstream media, is ad-driven publishing. In this model, advertisements are used to offset costs and generate profits for publishers. Ad-driven publishing often uses the "Google" model to charge for advertisements: an advertiser only pays for their ads when a user either views or clicks on the ad. An example of this type of publishing is Elsevier's beta website, OncologySTAT.
Advantages to this model include possibly higher profit margins for publishers and less of a financial burden on would-be subscribers. Advertising in publishing is a relatively unsaturated market in comparison to library subscription revenues. Publishers may find that revenue from ads may more than absorb the loss of subscription revenue. The New York Times, for example, announced in September of 2007 that they were intending to stop charging subscription fees for Times Select, the online version of the paper, changing their publishing model to the ad-driven model. The reason for the change, according to the Times, was that more growth was possible in advertising revenue than subscription revenue.
While there are advantages to this publishing model, there are also several possible disadvantages. Biases and conflicts of interest may arise if a publisher accepts advertising revenue from companies whose products are being tested in the research published in a journal. Advertising that is not clearly labeled may be considered journal content by readers. Since purchasing a subscription would be unnecessary, perpetual access to content could not be assured.