Reprinted from _Newsletter on Serials Pricing Issues_, no. 100:

100.4 FAXON RESPONSE TO MARY PAGE
      Ron Akie, Publisher Services, Faxon Company, akie@faxon.com.

Gordon & Breach sent a letter to all subscribers advising that renewal
invoices were sent to all agents for 1994 volumes. Invoices not paid by the
end of December would be re-invoiced at a new price -- potentially 2 - 5 %
higher than the original price. It is important to note that this is not a
surcharge or penalty, but a price increase after that date (some earlier
messages on the network were unclear on this point).

We attempted to negotiate with G&B to hold the increases on titles that
were delayed. G&B did not agree and requires payment on all 1994 volumes by
December 31 to obtain the current rate.

Compounding the situation, G&B changed its cancellation policy recently.
They now will accept no cancellation once payment for a volume has been
made.

In order to give clients the opportunity to make a renewal or cancellation
decision before paying out these funds, Faxon has invoiced all clients for
these volumes. We have sent a letter to each client advising them of the
situation and explaining their three options: 1. accept the invoice at the
current price; 2. cancel their order; 3. ask us not to pay the invoice now
and risk paying a higher price after December 31.

Our objective as an agent here is to give our clients the decision of
whether to pay for a volume potentially far in advance of actual publica-
tion or to risk paying a higher price at a later date. This appears to be
the only way to protect clients' interests as much as possible while adher-
ing to the publisher's new policies. I assure you that we have made extra-
ordinary efforts with this publisher to convince them to be more flexible,
but they have indicated that their policy is firm. Please let me know if
anyone would like more information and feel free to distribute this as a
public response.