2024 Annual Report - mediastudies.press docs

# 2024 Annual Report *[mediastudies.press](https://mediastudies.press)* 2024 found mediastudies.press adjusting to some of the shifting sands of community-supported open access publishing. We responded to changes in PubPub by developing an even closer relationship with Thoth, the community-led metadata and distribution platform. We developed a plan to hire a part-time (one day a week) managing editor to help continue professionalizing our operations. We carefully assessed budget issues and identified a strategy to address some financial concerns in the future. As in 2023, the press 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 remain 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 2024]] * [[#2. News & initiatives]] * [[#3. Looking ahead 2025]] * [[#4. Finances]] *** ## 1. Publications in 2024 ### A. Books Published #### 1. *Early Media Effects Theory & the Suggestion Doctrine: Selected Readings, 1895–1935* <a href="https://www.mediastudies.press/early-media-effects-theory-the-suggestion-doctrine"><img src="https://books.mediastudies.press/10.32376/3f8575cb.f1e0489e_frontcover.png" alt="Cover" style="float:left;width:250px;padding-right:20px;" /></a> While much has been written on the history of media effects research in the United States, a casual review of the literature could reasonably lead one to believe that little if any such work was conducted until the 1940s. *[Early Media Effects Theory & the Suggestion Doctrine: Selected Readings, 1895–1935](https://www.mediastudies.press/early-media-effects-theory-the-suggestion-doctrine)*, consisting of over 30 public domain works originally publishing from the late 19th century to the mid-1930s, demonstrates the rich and varied study of media effects before mid-century—much of it centered on the concept of “suggestion.” What media scholars know today as “persuasion,” social psychologists of the early 1900s would have understood as the process of suggestion. The works collected in _[Early Media Effects Theory & the Suggestion Doctrine](https://www.mediastudies.press/early-media-effects-theory-the-suggestion-doctrine)_ include the original statements on the subject from many of the leading social theorists of the age, among them figures such as Gabriel Tarde and Gustave Le Bon in France and James Baldwin, Edward Ross, and Floyd Allport in the United States. _Patrick Parsons_ is professor emeritus at the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications at the Pennsylvania State University. ### B. *History of Media Studies* *HMS* published a Special Section on the [History of Communication Studies across the Americas](https://hms.mediastudies.press/volume-4---2024) , in concert with two Latin American OA journals and based on a [2022 roundtable](https://hms.mediastudies.press/americas-roundtable) sponsored by *HMS*. The collection includes an [introduction](https://hms.mediastudies.press/pub/am-introduction/release/3?readingCollection=a151dbcf) by the journal’s editors, Pete Simonson, Jeff Pooley, and Dave Park, co-authored with the journal’s Associate Editor for Spanish Language Scholarship, Esperanza Herrero, and six articles: * [“Coloniality and Resistance: The Revolutionary Moment in Communication Study in the Anglophone Caribbean”](https://hms.mediastudies.press/pub/am-gordon-bell?readingCollection=a151dbcf) - Nova Gordon-Bell * [“Elizabeth Fox: Intellectual Biography and History of a Field of Study”](https://hms.mediastudies.press/pub/am-heram-gandara?readingCollection=a151dbcf) - Yamila Heram and Santiago Gándara * [“Notes for Historicizing the Disintegrated Internationalization of Communication Studies in Latin America”](https://hms.mediastudies.press/pub/am-heram-gandara?readingCollection=a151dbcf) - Raul Fuentes-Navarro * [“Borderline Cases: Crossing Borders in Canadian Communication Studies, 1960s–1980s”](https://hms.mediastudies.press/pub/am-heram-gandara?readingCollection=a151dbcf) - Michael Darroch * [“‘Western Communication’: Eurocentrism and Modernity: Marks of the Predominant Theories in the Field”](https://hms.mediastudies.press/pub/am-heram-gandara?readingCollection=a151dbcf) - Erick R. Torrico Villanueva * [“Media, Intellectual, and Cultural Imperialism Today”](https://hms.mediastudies.press/pub/am-de-albuquerque?readingCollection=a151dbcf) - by Afonso Albuquerque ![[across-americas.png]] The Special Collection See also the companion collections in *[MATRIZes](https://www.revistas.usp.br/matrizes/issue/view/13086)* and (Brazil) and _[Comunicación y Sociedad](https://www.comunicacionysociedad.cucsh.udg.mx/index.php/comsoc/issue/view/v2023)_ (Mexico). *HMS* also published a pair of standalone research articles in 2024: * [“Forgetting / Cybernetics”](https://hms.mediastudies.press/pub/gomez-venegas-forgetting?readingCollection=a151dbcf) - Diego Gómez-Venegas * [“The Field of Western Populism Studies from 2000 to 2022”](https://hms.mediastudies.press/pub/von-mirbach-western-populism?readingCollection=a151dbcf) - Alexis von Mirbach ![[other-articles.png]] Other research articles The journal, finally, published four [book reviews](https://hms.mediastudies.press/book-reviews) in 2024. ![[book-reviews-2024.png]] 2024 book reviews *** ## 2. News & Initiatives ### A. Dave Park Named Co-Director [David W. Park](https://www.lakeforest.edu/academics/faculty/park/), who had served as the press’s Associate Director since 2022, was appointed Co-Director by the mediastudies.press Board in July 2024. Park is a [professor of communication](https://www.lakeforest.edu/academics/faculty/park/) at Lake Forest College (USA), and serves as co-editor of *History of Media Studies*. ![[david-park-2023.png]] ### B. The Press Joins Thoth Plus B Late in the year, mediastudies.press joined the new [Thoth Plus](https://thoth.pub/pricing) service, which adds a paid suite of metadata services to the free Thoth offering. ([Thoth](https://thoth.pub) is the open source, open metadata platform that the press has used as our ground-truth for our book metadata.) Going forward, Thoth will now handle most of the online [distribution for cross-platform downloads and indexing](https://thoth.pub/pricing)—including a number of sites and services new to the press. Thoth will, going forward, [formally host](https://thoth.pub/solutions/hosting#thoth-file-hosting) our canonical PDF and ePub files. ![[thoth-plus.png]] ### C. Open Book Collective The [Open Book Collective](https://openbookcollective.org), the nonprofit funding exchange, remained the largest source of funding for the press. We have our [own appeal](https://openbookcollective.org/view/package/11/summary/), and we are included in the OBC’s [ScholarLed bundle](https://openbookcollective.org/view/collections/2/). Last year we received funding from 24 universities and their libraries, and this year we added 22 more universities to that list; 7 universities renewed their previous subscriptions on top of that. These libraries are still mostly located in the US and UK, but we also added subscriptions from institutions in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Canada. 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 In 2023, 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 2025 is to include citations and reviews on the pages. ![[author-page-parsons.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. ![[example-finance-2024.png]] An example monthly finance page ### F. Bluesky and Mastodon mediastudies.press formally abandoned X in 2024, after earlier suspending activity in the aftermath of the Elon Musk takeover. We have created accounts on [Bluesky](https://bsky.app/profile/mediastudiespress.bsky.social) and [Mastodon](https://hcommons.social/@mediadotpress) (on the [Knowledge Futures instance](https://hcommons.social/about)), with regular posts on both platforms. ![[mastodon-2024.png]] The mediastudies.press Mastodon ### G. Other Activity and Updates Co-director Dave Park was [interviewed by COPIM](https://copim.pubpub.org/pub/open-access-week-interview-with-david-park/release/2) for Open Access Week. Co-director Jeff Pooley published an [article in *NECSUS*](https://necsus-ejms.org/open-scholarship-a-portfolio-on-funding-globalising-and-enhancing/) on the press, its history, and its funding prospects. (See Pooley’s other 2024 scholarly communications articles, on [utopian thought](https://culturemachine.net/vol-23-publishing-after-progress/jeff-pooley-before-progress/) and on [AI and the publishing oligopolists](https://kula.uvic.ca/index.php/kula/article/view/291).) The press hosted a February [book launch event](https://www.mediastudies.press/pub/2024-02-13-ford-discussion/release/1?readingCollection=734c9ea9) for the *Franklin Ford Collection* (2023), and created a “Why Publish with mediastudies.press” [page](https://www.mediastudies.press/why-publish) in advance of press’s second annual [proposal submission window](https://www.mediastudies.press/proposals). The journal also hosted [four sessions](https://hms.mediastudies.press/pub/wg-past-sessions/release/19), under the leadership of co-editor/co-director Dave Park, of the [Working Group on the History of Media Studies](https://hms.mediastudies.press/working-group), and published eleven issues of the *[History of Media Studies Newsletter](https://hms.mediastudies.press/newsletter)*. The journal, finally, joined [Project Jasper](https://doaj.org/preservation/), which formally preserves the journal’s published items. ![[park-oa-week.png]] Dave Park’s Copim interivew *** ## 3. Looking Ahead: 2025 Among the press’s major goals and priorities for 2025: **A. Publish six books:** We aim to publish six books next year: (1) *Del Laboratorio Chileno a la Comunicación-Mundo: Un Itinerario Intelectual de Armand Mattelart* (History of Media Studies), (2) *Independent, Alternative, and Community Media: An Open Reader* (Open Reader), (3) *Mapping Goffman’s Invisible College* (History of Media Studies), (4) *Mobile Personalization: The History and Theory of Mobile Streaming Media* (Media Manifold), (5) *From Erving to Goffman: A Work in Performance?* (History of Media Studies), and (6) *Defund Culture: A Radical Proposal* (Media Manifold). **B. Publishing Project Manager:** In early 2025 the press hired [Natascha Chtena](https://nataschachtena.com) as its inaugural part-time [Publishing Project Manager](https://www.mediastudies.press/pub/2025-01-07-project-manager/release/2?readingCollection=734c9ea9). Chtena (PhD, UCLA) is research associate at the [ScholCommLab](https://www.scholcommlab.ca/) at Simon Fraser University (Canada) and past editor-in-chief (2020–2022) of the [*HKS Misinformation Review*](http://misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu/). Chtena will be helping the press across its operations, from metadata to publicity, four hours a week. **C. Explore migration from PubPub to a Thoth white-label website:** Given developments at Knowledge Futures, the PubPub maker, we are considering a move away from the platform, to a [white-label site offered by Thoth](https://thoth.pub/solutions/hosting#thoth-website-hosting). The site (example [here](https://nups.thoth.pub)) would be automatically populated by Thoth metadata. Thoth, in cooperation with Open Book Publishers, is planning to release a [Usage Statistics service and widget](https://thoth.pub/solutions/hosting#thoth-usage-statistics). When implemented, this metrics gathering-and-display platform should drastically simplify and streamline our metrics tracking, which is currently manual and time-consuming. An open question, with the potential migration, is how mediastudies.press’s html versions will be displayed. We will be exploring [PubPub Platform](https://www.knowledgefutures.org/pubpub/) and [epub.js](https://github.com/futurepress/epub.js), among other options. **D. Explore Lightning Source and a GOBI consortium:** The press currently publishes its paperback publish-on-demand through [Kindle Direct Publishing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kindle_Direct_Publishing) (Amazon). We aim to explore the other duopolist, Ingram’s [Lightning Source](https://www.ingramcontent.com/publishers/print-on-demand), based on the distribution experiences of our peer presses. We also aim to form a consortium of small scholar-led presses to approach [GOBI](https://www.ebsco.com/products/gobi-library-solutions), the EBSCO-owned for-profit that manages most North American library book purchases. **E. Author manual and in-production notices:** The press plans to develop a guide for authors, to be hosted on [msp-docs.org](https://msp-docs.org) or the potential new website. We have, in addition, developed a [book production flow chart](https://msp-docs.org/images/msp-flow-chart.png) that we plan to use to provide monthly updates to contracted authors on their book’s place in the production process. *** ## 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 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. Income & expenses - *History of Media Studies*|F. Income & 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 2023 - overall* **December 31, 2023:** $50,354.98 #### *2. End of 2024 - overall* **December 31, 2024:** $61,148.06 *** ### B. Income & Expenses - Overall #### *1. 2024 Income - overall* $24,024.65 #### *2. 2024 Expenses - overall* $13,236.07 *** ### C. Balance - mediastudies.press Books #### *1. End of 2023 - mediastudies.press books* **December 31, 2023:** $9,349.15 #### *2. End of 2024 - mediastudies.press books* **December 31, 2024:** $22,829.69 *** ### D. Income & Expenses - mediastudies.press Books #### *1. 2024 Income - mediastudies.press books* $19,817.15 #### *2. 2024 Expenses - mediastudies.press books* $6,336.61 *** ### E. Balance - *History of Media Studies* #### *1. End of 2023 - History of Media Studies* **December 31, 2023:** $41,010.33 #### *2. End of 2024 - History of Media Studies* **December 31, 2024:** $38,318.37 *** ### F. Income & Expenses - *History of Media Studies* #### *1. 2024 Income - *History of Media Studies $4,207.50 #### *2. 2024 Expenses - *History of Media Studies $6,899.46 *** ### G. Income by Category - Overall * **OBC:** $17,976.27 * **OACIP:** $4,207.50 * **grants:** $1,400.00 * **donations:** $235.30 * **book sales:** $205.58 ![[overall-income-2024.png]] *** ### H. Expenses by Category - Overall * **translation:** $4,955.23 * **proofing & copyediting:** $4,712.09 * **subscriptions/dues/memberships:** $1,821.19 * **software:** $1,091.98 * **online services:** $393.11 * **author copies:** $41.15 * **office space:** $120.00 * **reviewing:** $41.14 * **taxes and licenses:** $25.00 * **permissions:** $25.00 * **other expenses (general):** $9.45 ![[overall-expenses-2024.png]] *** ### I. Income by Category - mediastudies.press Books * **OBC:** $17,976.27 * **grants:** $1,400.00 * **donations:** $235.30 * **book sales:** $205.58 ![[msp-income-2024.png]] *** ### J. Expenses by Category - mediastudies.press Books * **translation:** $4,713.98 * **proofing & copyediting:** $563.23 * **software:** $445.08 * **online services:** $180.06 * **subscriptions/dues/memberships:** $332.94 * **author copies:** $41.87 * **taxes and licenses:** $25.00 * **permissions:** $25.00 * **other expenses (general):** $9.45 ![[msp-expenses-2024.png]] *** ### K. Income by Category - *History of Media Studies* * **OACIP:** $4,207.50 ![[hms-income-2024.png]] *** ### L. Expenses by Category - *History of Media Studies* * **proofing & copyediting:** $4,148.86 * **subscriptions/dues/memberships:** $1,488.25 * **software:** $646.90 * **translation:** $241.25 * **online services:** $213.05 * **office space:** $120.00 * **reviewing:** $41.15 ![[hms-expenses-2024.png]] *** ### M. Income & Expenses by Month * *[[finance-report-2024-01|January 2024]]* * *[[finance-report-2024-02|February 2024]]* * *[[finance-report-2024-03|March 2024]]* * *[[finance-report-2024-04|April 2024]]* * *[[finance-report-2024-05|May 2024]]* * *[[finance-report-2024-06|June 2024]]* * *[[finance-report-2024-07|July 2024]]* * *[[finance-report-2024-08|August 2024]]* * *[[finance-report-2024-09|September 2024]]* * *[[finance-report-2024-10|October 2024]]* * *[[finance-report-2024-11|November 2024]]* * *[[finance-report-2024-12|December 2024]]* *** [[#2024 Annual Report|Top of report]]