Evidence for open access as an emergent, global state of mind is everywhere. The "New York Times" went "open" last September, and the "Wall Street Journal" is slated to follow. Increasingly, scholarly communities are breaking with tradition and calling for the open sharing of research, software, and data. Amongst these global initiatives is the campaign to provide open access to the results of research that is funded with public dollars. This campaign has produced a series of startling successes in recent months, with potentially profound implications for the journal publishing industry. This article reports the varied reactions of various institutions to open access mandate. This article also reports how the mandate is expected to impact increased prices on journals in 2009. (Contains 9 tables.)