There are many ways in which the academic landscape is changing, and stories like this will continue to come up in the coming few years. The opponents of such moves (in this case, the shuttering of the University of Missouri Press) will express their "outrage" (outrage?) in the most moralistic and inflated language possible.
I've read several articles on this particular closing, because it symbolizes one of the many changes that will happen--needs to happen--to the academy in the United States, especially that portion populated by public institutions. The money is not there like it once was, and it is unlikely to return. The publishing industry is changing as modes of publication change. The notion that an academic monograph (published at a loss, bought almost entirely by libraries, and almost never read) must be the sole standard for tenure at a major institution is being scrutinized--and needs to be further scrutinized. Given these trends, the expectation that things will not change (sometimes unpleasantly for those working in university settings) strikes me as odd. The entire academic enterprise simply cannot continue as it has been.
Things will look very different in ten years. The question is whether or not our academic institutions--university presses among them--anticipate and adapt to what must inevitably come.
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