The current system was created when all journals were hard-copy only. Journal publishing companies had to pay for things like type-setting, buying paper, binding, printing, mail, much like old-time newspapers. Nowadays all journals are PDF-based and online (although hard-copy journals often still exist in tandem too, for no good reason). Academics worked for free (writing, reviewing, editing) because that's the only way that the old system could work, whereby their work was published at zero cost to the academics (many journals do still publish for free). Publishing companies made their money solely from subscriptions (paid by the taxpayer-funded universities whose academics produced the work !).
With PDFs, and academics now all being computer-literate, there is really no longer any need for journal publishing companies at all. Academic societies can run their journals by themselves, solely with academics still working for free as they always have (academics have never wanted to be paid for creating work for publication). There is free journal management software for them to use. And all distribution can be online, and free to everyone. At most you need some server space, which many universities would be happy to provide gratis. There are already some independent journals working completely this way. Journal publishers are dinosaurs. They will soon be extinct. Paid "OA"models will not survive, and should not be encouraged. Sci-hub and nexus have subverted the subscription model, taking away ill-gotten revenue. Universities are increasingly refusing to pay for subscriptions. Governments who fund research are mandating that the published research must be available to their taxpayers for free. The traditional journal publishing system is crumbling. Its extinction can't come soon enough.
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