Circle of Secrets
While news continues to unfold about the licensing deals between big publishers and big tech, Wiley’s numbers and T&F’s are out there; and from them estimating the haul for Elsevier and Springer Nature and others can’t be too far behind.
Researchers and authors are upset, publishers are within their rights. There is the letter of the law and all that. But the optics of these deals are problematic any way you cut it. What is that line again about perception being reality? Publishers keep stepping on their brands. Self-inflicted wounds with key stakeholders aren’t a good look. I have no quibbles about their deal-making. I just wish things were more transparent.
Since our analysis of this industry began 30 years ago, we have always been struck by the irony of this industry’s deals being highly confidential, yet by and for companies whose role is fundamentally about improving access to information and knowledge.
Even when it comes to something like benchmarking or the exchange of operating practices, we witness those who are hesitant to participate. We are private; we are a non-profit; we are different. We spend our time with the members who ‘get it’ and those clients we are blessed to have every day who come together for this very purpose.
But those who won’t exchange knowledge while being in the knowledge industry — even when confidentiality is guaranteed? — it’s baffling.
For decades, we have heard buyer and user complaints about being kept under strict NDA about deal terms. With GenAI licensing it’s gotten worse. They too come with ironclad confidentiality agreements. Big tech doesn’t want to talk about the deals and neither does big publishing. And so, the circle of secrets persists.
But licensing content to big tech (or anyone really) for LLMs or other use cases is a lever to pull for generating ROI from GenAI. And we are going to discuss this topic at the Outsell Signature Event, co-produced with JEGI CLARITY October 9–10 at the Four Seasons One Dalton Boston.
At Outsell, we have analyzed three levers to pull for generating ROI from GenAI in order to better separate hype from reality to put these new technologies to use. We will have three panels chock full of case studies on each lever:
1) Lever 1 — Using AI for Internal Efficiency & Productivity
2) Lever 2 — Driving Revenue With AI Features in our Products & Services
3) Lever 3 — Building New Revenue Streams through Licensing
Our clients and attendees have told us they love case studies, and they want more. So, we’re unpeeling each of these with a great group of leaders who have practical experience to share, insight about risks and rewards, and understanding of caveats and opportunities. Pull a lever today and invest in yourself. Request your invitation and join us.