A meeting of experts was convened in March 2004 to discuss the future of the GPO Sales Program. The basic objective of this meeting was to get advice and feedback on how to build a sustainable economic model for the GPO Sales Program that will generate $30 to $50 million in additional revenue for GPO annually. The model must be one that is acceptable to publishing agencies, complements free public access to government information through the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), and avoids inappropriate competition with commercial publishing.
Comments on the Summary
After completion of the first report on the meeting on the Future of the GPO Sales Program, the report was posted and opened for comment through GPO Access and via e-mail. GPO has received and reviewed all comments and appreciates the effort that was made to assist us in planning for the future of the Sales Program.
It was apparent in both the meeting and the subsequent comments that it was difficult to provide general advice about the Sales Program in the absence of specific examples of new products and services that might be offered. However, GPO will take the advice that was received into consideration in planning for future products and services, and there will be further opportunity for interested parties to react to the specific initiatives that GPO pursues.
Please note that very few changes were made to the actual document, as it is a record of a meeting that occurred in the past. There were two changes of note made to the document. First, the language that previously appeared at the top about submitting comments has been omitted. Second, in all instances in which the word "free" was used in the report, the words "no fee" were substituted. This change was made in response to concerns expressed by a number of the participants that "no-fee" more accurately reflected the fact that there are costs to libraries and other consumers to use "free" services such as GPO Access.
- Original Document, March 16, 2004
- Revised Document, June 17, 2004