In the July 23, 1982, MMWR, it was announced that CDC will no
longer provide unrestricted free distribution of the MMWR after
October 1, 1982. Free distribution will be provided to specific
groups including, among others, state health officials, deans of
schools of public health, and disseminators of public health
information. Other individuals and organizations now receiving the
publication free of charge will be able to purchase it through the
National Technical Information Service (NTIS).
This decision was reached after careful evaluation of the costs
of
the MMWR. Despite an annual renewal requirement, the number of
recipients has more than doubled during the past five years.
Currently, the cost of printing and postage exceeds $1 million a
year.
After determining who should receive the MMWR free of charge,
CDC
began discussions with NTIS to arrange for the development of a
paid
subscription list. NTIS was created as an agency of the U. S.
Department of Commerce as a central source for the public sale of
scientific and technical information. The law that established
NTIS
directs it to be self-sustaining and to recover all costs from the
sale of products and services. NTIS made the decision on the cost
of
the MMWR and ancillary publications, and the revenue generated will
be
used by NTIS to cover its costs. CDC will not pay NTIS for the
subscription service, and NTIS will not return any of the revenue
to
CDC.
The decision to restrict free distribution has been a painful
departure from our tradition. It was our judgment that
alternatives
would have been more damaging to public health.
William H. Foege, M.D.
Director
Centers for Disease Control
Disclaimer
All MMWR HTML documents published before January 1993 are electronic conversions from ASCII text into HTML. This conversion may have resulted in character translation or format errors in the HTML version. Users should not rely on this HTML document, but are referred to the original MMWR paper copy for the official text, figures, and tables. An original paper copy of this issue can be obtained from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO), Washington, DC 20402-9371; telephone: (202) 512-1800. Contact GPO for current prices.
**Questions or messages regarding errors in formatting should be addressed to mmwrq@cdc.gov.
