> I'm curious what the business expenses of a digital publisher like Elsevier look like.

Me too. Their investor relations report [0] is the best source I know of, but it's pretty vague. I only see breakdowns of revenue, no details regarding operating costs.

PLOS One is transparent regarding their costs though [1]:

- 46% publishing, editorial

- 18% publishing, production

- 15% publishing, technology

- 16% general & admin

- 5% publication fee rebates

[0] https://www.relx.com/~/media/Files/R/RELX-Group/documents/re...

[1] https://plos.org/financial-overview/