This is a great question, "Why does ESA still publish paper journals?" The answer to this question changes by the year if not more quickly. The basic answer is that we still publish on paper because libraries want to buy our paper journals. However, the fraction of libraries desiring paper is falling, albeit slowly. The number of individual subscribers desiring paper is much smaller and it is falling much faster than on the library side. We encourage all subscribers to choose digital only. This is good business for ESA because the paper costs lots to print, handle, and mail (our business is publishing good science; it isn't wed to paper). Digital only is good business for libraries because digital journals cost less; no binding, shelving, and re-shelving. The reader gets better value with the digital only products from us. At the same time, we have seen on ecolog that some readers prefer paper journals. We are serving the diversity of our readers!
A more interesting question that has been on the internet recently is, "Why are not all ESA journals open access?" We have a really good answer now that we have Ecosphere. The first part of our answer is, We can do open access, just look at Ecosphere." The second part of the answer is that all of our journals will become open access when authors and readers demand open access. At this point we have many, many more submissions to our traditional journals: Ecology, Ecological Applications, Ecological Monographs, and Frontiers in Ecology than to Ecosphere. If authors simply submitted their work to Ecosphere rather than the traditional journals, we would choke on our success for a few months, then we would begin shifting our traditional journals to the open access mode in a model similar to Ecosphere (with residual printing for the shrinking "I want paper" group). We have talked a lot about such a scary, exciting proposition. I will finish by saying that while our traditional journals are by subscription (except Ecology reports, which are open access), they are at the kind and gentle end of subscriptions. Librarians love ESA journals because they are affordable, have not escalated their prices, and are not bundled with lots of less desirable journals. I will reserve my rant about the commercial publishers for beers at the Portland meeting. I buy the first round.
