The text takes into consideration the transformations experienced over the last decade in academic publishing, with specific reference to journals and especially to humanities. Even with features (for dimensions and levels of internationalization) that are very different from those of the STEM disciplines, digital information technologies have significantly changed both the way research is used and the way it is made available. From a publisher’s point of view - of which some data and references are given - this has implied a widespread redesign of internal workflows and above all of the skills necessary to dialogue with external platforms. Compared to these transformations (unavoidable), the new Open Access distribution models could be much less impacting.
Keywords: Academic publishing, digital publishing, Open Access.