Does anybody who actually works at Elsevier ever read these HN threads?

I can't find it now, but yes, someone from either Elsevier or Springer actually did spend some time on HN a while ago -- within the last year IIRC -- defending their business model and practices.

It was a valiant effort, let's put it that way.

Even if they don't read HN, I'm sure Elsevier execs know about the general discontent against costly journals. There have been numerous campaigns [1] to boycott journals published by Elsevier.

[1]: http://thecostofknowledge.com

I interviewed with them in Oxford UK. The tech people there don't have a clue about the stress they cause the academic community. Only reason I knew is because my wife is an ex-academic. It is interesting however how there is never any astroturfing from their side, which would suggest even they know their position is utter toss and a drain on society.

I spoke with a couple of devs from there who did read HN - though I'm not sure if they also read these threads. They weren't too enthusiastic about them anyway. There's also MrGunn, one of the founders of Mendeley, who occasionally drops in, and though he mostly comments just to correct errors and misconceptions about Elsevier (dreadful as their holding back of science is, people can sometimes take some liberty with reality), he's pretty reasonable.

And I've been approached by one of their recruiters once, despite publicly working on dampening their influence for quite a while now - not sure if that counts :P

We've occasionally had people defending them who I suspect worked for them.

I do! But I’m just a dev there.