Maskell stops the presses on MUP plan

Duncan Maskell has chosen to ‘refocus’ MUP on being a ‘high-quality scholarly press’.

Duncan Maskell: Great political biographies can have a place at the new MUP.

New University of Melbourne vice-chancellor Duncan Maskell rejected a business plan inherited from his predecessor that would have allowed the institu­tion’s publishing arm to continue producing and selling its popular non-academic books.

The plan — which would have left in place Melbourne Univer­sity Publishing’s successful business of publishing high-quality memoirs, biographies, current ­affairs and history titles — was quashed after Professor Maskell became vice-chancellor last ­October.

Instead, he chose to “refocus” MUP on being a “high-quality scholarly press”, sparking a storm of criticism and causing the resignation of long-time MUP chief executive Louise Adler, chairman Laurie Muller and four independent ­directors, including former NSW premier Bob Carr and forme­r human rights commission president Gillian Triggs.

The changes to MUP, announced last week, stem back to a review of the press commissioned by the University of Melbourne’s governing council in 2017, soon after barrister Allan Myers was appoint­ed chancellor and chairman of the council.

The review — led by the university’s then deputy chancellor Ross McPherson — reported back in March last year with ­radical recommendations to boost the number of academic title­s published by MUP and to outsource other publishing, includin­g the popular, high-­quality titles that had earned MUP its reputation.

Then vice-chancellor Glyn Davis, a strong supporter of MUP and Ms Adler, commissioned a working group under retired Universit­y of Adelaide vice-­chancellor Warren Bebbington, with two outside experts, to respon­d to the review.

Professor Bebbington’s group proposed a compromise, which would have left MUP’s business model intact while adding an e-publishing arm for academic titles which would not be economic to publish as hard copies.

The new arm would publish about 50 books a year and would operate in a similar way to the ANU Press, which is open-source, meaning titles are available for free. It would take advice from an editorial advisory board.

The compromise was intended to satisfy a desire from some academics in the university for MUP to publish more academic works.

MUP was in a position to suppor­t the e-press because it has been profitable recently.

It had a surplus of near $300,000 in 2017 and more than $200,000 last year. Its financial health is partly due to its ­investment of about $250,000 in a system for online sales to readers, bypassing bookshops, whose commission can account for nearly half the cover price of a book. The plan would not have required new subsidies from the university beyond the annual $1.25 million that has been provided for many years.

The Bebbington plan was intend­ed to be put to the council meeting in September last year, the last held in Professor Davis’s tenure as vice-chancellor.

Instead, to allow Professor Maskell to take ownership of the issue, it was held over until the October meeting, when the new vice-chancellor was asked to prepar­e his own plan.

The final plan, to “refocus” MUP on scholarly titles, was adopted at the December meeting with the unanimous backing of council members, including Professo­r Maskell.

The vice-chancellor was not available yesterday to comment but, in an article published in The Australian today, Professor ­Maskell says MUP will continue to publish books on politics and current affairs, including some by non-academic authors.

“Great political biographies can have a place at the new MUP,” he writes. “The university’s intention in refocusing its publishing arm is to ensure we can make a distinctive and outstanding contribution to scholarly and public debate at the highest level.”

Professor Maskell also says MUP may start a digital open-access service, to give fast and free acces­s to scholarly works.