Rice University Press to Close Next Month

Posted on August 21, 2010

Inside Higher Ed reports that the Rice University Press will close its doors next month. Rice University Press closed in 1996, but then relaunched as an experimental all-digital in 2006. Unfortunately, the digital version was unable to generate enough book sales to succeed.

Eugene Levy, who recently concluded a term as provost at Rice, explained why the project is ending: "The hope was that, without the burden of having to maintain a print inventory, the press might sustain itself largely on revenues from print-on-demand book sales. Unfortunately, book sales remained very slow, and projections discouraged the anticipation that revenues would, in the foreseeable future, grow to a level that could materially cover even minimal costs of operations. Combined with pressures on the university budget from the broad fiscal crisis of recent years, the university concluded that it could not continue indefinite subsidy of the RUP experiment, as painful budget reductions were being absorbed across the entire university, including in the core of Rice's educational and research mission."

For more information, The Chronicle of Higher Education has a blog post here about the closure of Rice University's digital press.