Pondering Poynder’s Pronouncements
A journalist sympathetic to the OA movement throws in the towel, and enumerates his reasons — but misses some big issues
I’ve long been a fan of Richard Poynder’s writing and journalism. Fair, thorough, and curious, he’s a model of an independent journalist. Over the years, we’ve occasionally pinged one another, but have never met.
He began as someone sympathetic to the OA movement, while I have always been skeptical at best.
A careful observer of Poynder’s work would have seen his support of OA eroding over the years and turning to skepticism as various missteps, sources of corruption, and bad ideas became clear.
Then, last week, he issued this tweet:
Following up earlier this week, he posted a two-page explainer on Twitter/X, as well, consisting of a letter and a list.
I have reproduced and annotated some of the text from the letter below: