2023 Annual Report - mediastudies.press docs

# 2023 Annual Report *[mediastudies.press](https://mediastudies.press)* 2023 was a year of professionalization at mediastudies.press, in its book and journal publishing. We focused on standardizing workflows, including working with funders and authors, in the service of our vision of open access publishing that does not impose author paywalls in place of reader paywalls. We are committed to bibliodiversity, scaling small, mutual aid, and the campaign to reclaim scholarly publishing and its supporting infrastructure from the oligopolists. *** ## Table of Contents * [[#1. Publications in 2023]] * [[#2. News & initiatives]] * [[#3. Looking ahead 2024]] * [[#4. Finances]] *** ## 1. Publications in 2023 ### A. Books published #### 1. *Creativity: Process and Personality* <a href="https://www.mediastudies.press/creativity"><img src="https://github.com/mediastudiespress/singles/raw/master/public_domain/gross-1964/cover/gross-1964-front-cover-640-1024-png.png" alt="Cover" style="float:left;width:250px;padding-right:20px;" /></a> Before arriving in the field of communication, Larry Gross was a psychology student at Brandeis University; _[Creativity: Process and Personality](https://www.mediastudies.press/creativity)_ was Gross’s undergraduate thesis at Brandeis, completed in 1964. This mediastudies.press edition is the initial publication of that undergraduate thesis, with a new preface by Gross himself. _[Creativity: Process and Personality](https://www.mediastudies.press/creativity)_ finds Gross exploring the nature of creativity by interviewing some of the era’s most noteworthy experts in psychology, including Herbert Simon, Milton Rokeach, Abraham Maslow, David McClelland, Jerome Bruner, and B. F. Skinner. The result of Gross’s interviews is a nuanced and multi-perspectival set of interlocking chapters, each of which probes the psychological, social, and cultural aspects of creativity. _[Creativity: Process and Personality](https://www.mediastudies.press/creativity)_ remains a provocative consideration of how creativity takes form, while also operating as a revealing snapshot of mid-twentieth century psychological thought. _Larry Gross_ is Professor of Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California. #### 2. *Franklin Ford Collection* <a href="https://www.mediastudies.press/ford-collection"><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mediastudiespress/singles/master/public_domain/franklin-ford/cover/franklin-ford-front-cover-640-1024-png.png" alt="Cover" style="float:left;width:250px;padding-right:20px;" /></a> The American journalist Franklin Ford (1849–1918) is remembered for his ambitious (and stillborn) _Thought News_ periodical, hatched with philosopher John Dewey. The _[Franklin Ford Collection](https://www.mediastudies.press/ford-collection)_, curated and introduced by Dominique Trudel and Juliette De Maeyer, takes in the full shambolic spread of Ford's thought, across news, politics, education, finance, and society at large. The collection includes nineteen documents—letters, leaflets, editorials, and treatises—with critical annotations from Trudel and De Maeyer. The works, many unpublished or rarely circulated, illustrate the core themes that animated Ford's career, including his sweeping program of press reform and his thoughts on the interconnected flows of money, transportation, and communication. _Franklin Ford_ (1849–1918) was an American journalist, entrepreneur, and media theorist. _Dominique Trudel_ is associate professor of communication and culture at Audencia Business School. _Juliette De Maeyer_ is professor of communication at the Université de Montréal. #### 3. *Killer Fandom: Fan Studies and the Celebrity Serial Killer* <a href="https://www.mediastudies.press/killer-fandom"><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mediastudiespress/singles/master/media_manifold/killer-fandom/cover/killer-fandom-front-cover-png.png#L0" alt="Cover" style="float:left;width:250px;padding-right:20px;" /></a> _[Killer Fandom](https://www.mediastudies.press/killer-fandom)_ is the first long-form treatment of serial killer fandom. Fan studies have mostly ignored this most moralized form of fandom, as a stigmatized Bad Other in implicit tension with the field’s successful campaign to recuperate the broader fan category. Yet serial killer fandom, as Judith May Fathallah shows in the book, can be usefully studied with many of the field’s leading analytic frameworks. After tracing the pre-digital history of fans, mediated celebrity, and killers, Fathallah examines contemporary fandom through the lens of textual poaching, affective community, subcultural capital, and play. With close readings of fan posts, comments, and mashups on Tumblr, TikTok, and YouTube, alongside documentaries, podcasts, and a thriving “murderabilia” industry, _[Killer Fandom](https://www.mediastudies.press/killer-fandom)_ argues that this fan culture is, in many ways, hard to distinguish from more “mainstream” fandoms. Fan creations around Aileen Wuornos, Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, and Richard Ramirez, among others, demonstrate a complex and shifting stance toward their objects—marked by parodic humor and irony in many cases. _[Killer Fandom](https://www.mediastudies.press/killer-fandom)_ ultimately questions—given our crime-and violence-saturated media culture—whether it makes sense to set Dahmer and Wuornos “fans” apart from the rest of us. _Judith May Fathallah_ is a Research and Outreach Associate at Lancaster University and a Research Fellow at Coventry University in the UK. She is author of _Fanfiction and the Author: How Fanfic Changes Popular Cultural Texts_ (2017) and _Emo: How Fans Studied a Subculture_ (2020). ### B. *History of Media Studies* _HMS_ published a Special Section on the connections between the histories of French and German communication. The collection includes an [introduction](https://hms.mediastudies.press/pub/fg-introduction/release/2?readingCollection=cda51ac1) by the Special Section’s editors, Stefanie Averbeck-Lietz, Fabien Bonnet, Sarah Cordonnier, and Carsten Wilhelm, and four articles: * Benjamin Krämer, [“How German Communication Research Discovered Bourdieu but Missed His Potential for the Study of (Populist) Political Communication”](https://hms.mediastudies.press/pub/fg-kramer/release/2?readingCollection=cda51ac1) * Nicolas Hubé, [“Understanding the German Media System with the Help of Bourdieu and Elias: Historical Sociology of Press-Political Relations in Germany”](https://hms.mediastudies.press/pub/fg-hube/release/2?readingCollection=cda51ac1) * Lisa Bolz, [“Journalism Studies and Journalism Education in France and in Germany”](https://hms.mediastudies.press/pub/fg-bolz/release/2?readingCollection=cda51ac1) * Hedwig Wagner, [“Media Studies in Germany in the Context of Cultural Studies and Franco-German Cooperation”](https://hms.mediastudies.press/pub/fg-wagner/release/2?readingCollection=cda51ac1) The Special Section’s articles were reviewed by the journal’s editors, the Special Section editors, and by Peter Maurer (Krämer), Irene Preisinger (Hubé), Sabine Bosler (Bolz), and Thomas Weber (Wagner)—all participants in the intellectual community that gave rise to the Special Section. The use of [signed review](https://hms.mediastudies.press/peer-review) was the journal’s first, conducted according to our care-oriented [guidelines](https://hms.mediastudies.press/reviewer-guidelines) for peer review. ![[french-german-comm-special-section.png]] The Special Section *HMS* also published [“From Victims to Economic Assets: Training Women in an Emerging Digital Society During the Late 1970s to the Mid-1990s”](https://doi.org/10.32376/d895a0ea.6e09b010) (by Rosalía Guerrero Cantarell, Carmen Flury, and Michael Geiss), and four [book reviews](https://hms.mediastudies.press/book-reviews). ![[book-reviews-2023.png]] The 2023 book reviews *** ## 2. News & initiatives ### A. New msp-docs site We have created a new site for public-facing documents: [msp-docs.org](https://msp-docs.org). The site, linked from our [main site](https://mediastudies.press), is meant for ancillary docs, including [[Author Pages]] (see below), [[Annual Reports]] like this one, and monthly [[Finances| financial updates]] (see below). ![[msp-docs-homepage.png]] The new msp-docs landing page ### B. Dave Park steps into Associate Director role [David W. Park](https://www.lakeforest.edu/academics/faculty/park/) (*Lake Forest College*) was named Associate Director of mediastudies.press in late 2022. Park had already been working alongside Director Jeff Pooley to steer the press in an informal capacity. ![[david-park-2023.png]] ### C. Open Book Collective launch The Open Book Collective, the groundbreaking mission-aligned funding exchange, got underway in 2023. We have our own [mediastudies.press appeal](https://openbookcollective.org/view/package/11/summary/), and are also included in the [ScholarLed bundle](https://openbookcollective.org/view/collections/2/). We received funding from [24 universities and their libraries](https://airtable.com/apploutc8XX0paBeS/shrJNqpv99ASZZulf), mostly from UK- and US-based institutions. We give thanks to the subscribers on [our site](https://www.mediastudies.press/obc-supporters) and on our [blog](https://www.mediastudies.press/blog). ![[open-book-collective-2023.png]] ### D. Author Pages We introduced [[Author Pages]], which track engagement for each book we’ve published, for the most recent month and for all time. The pages are intended for authors, but are also public, on the press’s new [[home|msp-docs site]]. One of our plans for next year is to include citations and reviews on the pages. ![[killer-fandom-author-page.png]] An example Author Page ### E. Monthly Finance Reports Transparency is one of the press’s founding values. We replaced a hard-to-decipher Airtable spreadsheet with [[Finances|monthly snapshots of our finances]], broken into the press’s book side and *History of Media Studies*—given their distinctive sources of funding. ![[finance-report-example.png]] An example Finance Report ### F. Thoth migration In 2023 we moved all of our metadata storage and propagation to [Thoth](https://thoth.pub), the new open-source platform. We added chapter-level metadata to our back catalog, added tables-of-contents and other missing fields, and employed the service’s API in a variety of ways. ![[thoth-2023.png]] A glimpse from the Thoth backend ### G. New proposal window Inspired by our scholar-led peer [punctum books](https://www.mediastudies.press/proposals), we [designated](https://www.mediastudies.press/proposals) a summer date-range (June 1 to July 30) to accept submissions. Among the advantages of the [new system](https://www.mediastudies.press/proposals) is to consider projects relationally, in light of our overall five-book-a-year target. We received a record number of proposals under the new approach, with the promise (largely delivered) of a quick turnaround for expressions of interest and—when relevant—peer review. ![[proposals-screenshot-2023.png]] From our Proposals page ### H. Trial book-launch event The press hosted a very well-attended online [book-launch event](https://buttondown.email/communicationhistory/archive/a-rosetta-stone-for-erving-goffman-a-free-online/) for Erving Goffman’s *[Communication Conduct in an Island Community](https://www.mediastudies.press/communication-conduct-in-an-island-community)*, published by mediastudies.press in late 2022. The event, held on Zoom in May 2023, featured five expert guests, including Yves Winkin, the author of the volume’s [new introduction](https://www.mediastudies.press/pub/yves-introduction?readingCollection=baaa50af). We aim to hold launch events for next year’s published books, on the model of this successful event. ![[rosetta-stone-goffman-event.png]] The website for the launch event ### I. *HMS* joins the DOAJ In December, *History of Media Studies* was [indexed](https://doaj.org/toc/2637-6091) by the [Directory of Open Access Journals](https://doaj.org/about/) (DOAJ), the established nonprofit vetting directory for OA journals. ![[doaj-hms.png]] The DOAJ listing ### J. Three new Board and Advisory members We welcomed two new members to the Board of Directors ([Cheryll Ruth Soriano](https://www.dlsu.edu.ph/research/research-centers/sdrc/cheryll-ruth-r-soriano/), *De La Salle University*, and [Juliette de Maeyer](https://recherche.umontreal.ca/nos-chercheurs/repertoire-des-professeurs/chercheur/is/in18899/), *Université de Montréal*) in 2023. In addition, [Jussi Parikka](https://jussiparikka.net) (*Aarhus University*) joined the press’s [Advisory Board](https://www.mediastudies.press/team). We thank outgoing Board member John L. Sullivan (*Muhlenberg College*) for his years of service to mediastudies.press. ![[board-of-directors-2023.png]] Board of Directors and Staff ### K. Other *HMS* activity and updates [Leonarda García Jimenez](https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5472-3314) (*Universidad de Murcia*) and [Afonso de Albuquerque](https://ppgcom.uff.br/afonso-de-albuquerque/) (*Universidade Federal Fluminense*) were named to the journal’s [Editorial Board](https://hms.mediastudies.press/editorial). The journal, under the leadership of co-editor Pete Simonson (*CU Boulder*), organized an online session devoted to works in progress on [Africa and the African Diaspora](https://hms.mediastudies.press/hmcs-africa). The journal also translated its main pages into Spanish, with the help of Esperanza Herrero (*Universidad de Murcia*), the journal’s Associate Editor for Spanish Language Scholarship. The journal also hosted [nine sessions](https://hms.mediastudies.press/pub/wg-past-sessions/release/19), under the leadership of co-editor Dave Park (*Lake Forest College*), of the [Working Group on the History of Media Studies](https://hms.mediastudies.press/working-group), and published ten issues of the *[History of Media Studies Newsletter](https://hms.mediastudies.press/newsletter)*. ![[hms-in-spanish-2023.png]] The journal’s new Spanish-language About page *** ## 3. Looking ahead: 2024 Among the press’s major goals and priorities for 2024: **A. Publish five books:** We aim to publish five books a year going forward, with next year’s slate to include (1) *Del Laboratorio Chileno a la Comunicación-Mundo: Un Itinerario Intelectual de Armand Mattelart* (Translation: History of Media Studies), (2) *Early Media Effects Theory and the Suggestion Doctrine: Selected Readings, 1895–1935* (Public Domain), (3) *Culture for the Millions?* (Public Domain), (4) *Independent Media: An Open Reader* (Open Reader), and (5) *Mobile Personalization: The History and Theory of Mobile Streaming Media* (Media Manifold). **B. Improvements to Author Pages:** We aim to add citations and review links to [[Author Pages]]. **C. Author manual:** The press plans to create a comprehensive guide for authors, to be hosted on [msp-docs.org](https://msp-docs.org). **D. Board of Directors and Advisory Board communication:** We are planning regular quarterly updates for the Board of Directors and Advisory Board members, along with regular bi-annual meetings of the Board of Directors. **E. Secure a preservation strategy for *HMS* and for multimedia books:** Our books are currently preserved (as PDFs) through Portico (via Project MUSE). We are following working groups exploring multimedia preservation for future, more experimental titles. We are also aiming to join [Project Jasper](https://doaj.org/preservation/), now that *HMS* is eligible (with DOAJ status). **F. Join COPE:** We are preparing an application to the [Committee on Publication Ethics](https://publicationethics.org) (COPE) for *HMS*. *** ## 4. Finances *Though mediastudies.press is a single nonprofit corporation, the organization includes both overall financial reporting as well as financial reporting broken into two categories: (1) mediastudies.press books and (2) *History of Media Studies*. The reason for the separate reporting is that (1) and (2) are, substantially but not exclusively, funded through separate revenue streams. mediastudies.press books receives a majority of revenue from the [Open Book Collective](https://openbookcollective.org/view/package/11/summary/) (OBC), while *History of Media Studies* receives most of its revenue from the [Open Access Community Investment Program](https://www.lyrasis.org/content/Pages/product-details.aspx?pid=FA72D255-4C12-EC11-80F2-00155D0A2721) (OACIP). **Important note:** The revenue from OACIP is front-loaded: Many of the library investors provided their full five-years of pledged investment in 2022, while other library investors are providing their five-years of pledged investment year by year, beginning in 2022. See the [OACIP Payment Schedule 2022–2023](https://github.com/mediastudiespress/organization/raw/master/operations/direct_funding/oacip/oacip-payment-schedule-2022-09.xlsx) and the [OACIP Payment Schedule 2023–2024](https://github.com/mediastudiespress/organization/raw/master/operations/direct_funding/oacip/oacip-payment-schedule-2023-2024.xlsx) for detailed breakdowns.* *** * [[#A. Balance - overall]] * [[#B. Income & expenses - overall]] * [[#C. Balance - mediastudies.press books]] * [[#D. Income & expenses - mediastudies.press books]] * [[#E. Balance - *History of Media Studies*|E. Balance - History of Media Studies]] * [[#F. Revenue & expenses - *History of Media Studies*|F. Revenue & expenses - History of Media Studies]] * [[#G. Income by category - overall]] * [[#H. Expenses by category - overall]] * [[#I. Income by category - mediastudies.press books]] * [[#J. Expenses by category - mediastudies.press books]] * [[#K. Income by category - *History of Media Studies*|K. Income by category - History of Media Studies]] * [[#L. Expenses by category - *History of Media Studies*|L. Expenses by category - History of Media Studies]] * [[#M. Income & expenses by month]] *** ### A. Balance - overall #### *1. End of 2022 - overall* **December 31, 2022:** $42,096.57 #### *2. End of 2023 - overall* **December 31, 2023:** $50,354.98 *** ### B. Income & expenses - overall #### *1. 2023 income - overall* $20,548.40 #### *2. 2023 expenses - overall* $12,289.96 *** ### C. Balance - mediastudies.press books #### *1. End of 2022 - mediastudies.press books* **December 31, 2022:** $1,208.56 #### *2. End of 2023 - mediastudies.press books* **December 31, 2023:** $9,349.15 *** ### D. Income & expenses - mediastudies.press books #### *1. 2023 income - mediastudies.press books* $14,349.36 #### *2. 2023 expenses - mediastudies.press books* $6,208.77 *** ### E. Balance - *History of Media Studies* #### *1. End of 2022 - History of Media Studies* **December 31, 2022:** $38,747.61 #### *2. End of 2023 - History of Media Studies* **December 31, 2023:** $38,873.92 *** ### F. Revenue & expenses - *History of Media Studies* #### *1. 2023 income - *History of Media Studies $6,207.50 #### *2. 2023 expenses - *History of Media Studies $6,081.19 *** ### G. Income by category - overall * **OBC:** $6,396.40 * **grants:** $5,250.00 * **OACIP:** $4,207.50 * **author funds:** $3,980.00 * **book sales:** $306.25 * **donations:** $282.78 * **other:** $125.47 ![[overall-income.png]] *** ### H. Expenses by category - overall * **proofing & copyediting:** $7,396.60 * **subscriptions/dues/memberships:** $1,525.02 * **software:** $1,011.46 * **author copies:** $555.36 * **online services:** $425.80 * **translation:** $403.12 * **other expenses (general):** $303.42 * **reviewing:** $296.03 * **hosting fees:** $200 * **office space:** $110 * **printing:** $38.15 * **taxes and licenses:** $25 ![[overall-expenses.png]] *** ### I. Income by category - mediastudies.press books * **OBC:** $6,396.40 * **author funds:** $3,980.00 * **grants:** $3,250.00 * **book sales:** $306.25 * **donations:** $282.78 * **other:** $125.47 ![[msp-income.png]] *** ### J. Expenses by category - mediastudies.press books * **proofing & copyediting:** $2,728.54 * **subscriptions/dues/memberships:** $1,232.80 * **software:** $707.64 * **author copies:** $555.36 * **other expenses (general):** $278.41 * **reviewing:** $233.02 * **hosting fees:** $200 * **office space:** $110 * **online services:** $99.85 * **printing:** $38.15 * **taxes and licenses:** $25 ![[msp-expenses.png]] *** ### K. Income by category - *History of Media Studies* * **OACIP:** $4,207.50 * **grants:** $2,000.00 ![[hms-income.png]] *** ### L. Expenses by category - *History of Media Studies* * **proofing & copyediting:** $4,668.06 * **translation:** $403.12 * **online services:** $325.95 * **software:** $303.82 * **subscriptions/dues/memberships:** $292.22 * **reviewing:** $63.01 * **other expenses (general):** $25.01 ![[hms-expenses.png]] *** ### M. Income & expenses by month * *[[finance-report-2023-01|January 2023]]* * *[[finance-report-2023-02|February 2023]]* * *[[finance-report-2023-03|March 2023]]* * *[[finance-report-2023-04|April 2023]]* * *[[finance-report-2023-05|May 2023]]* * *[[finance-report-2023-06|June 2023]]* * *[[finance-report-2023-07|July 2023]]* * *[[finance-report-2023-08|August 2023]]* * *[[finance-report-2023-09|September 2023]]* * *[[finance-report-2023-10|October 2023]]* * *[[finance-report-2023-11|November 2023]]* * *[[finance-report-2023-12|December 2023]]* *** [[#2023 Annual Report|Top of report]]