This talk will look into the specific challenges smaller publishers face when they need to achieve scale and global reach to remain competitive. With a growing global market for research papers, everyone will have to target new markets and adapt their operations to survive in an increasingly technological and competitive environment. The talk will be looking at the rapid rise of global articles, where they come from and how publishers today will need to react to attract and source articles from an increasingly global research pool. Having worked with, built and launched Open Access publishers in unusual places, whether in Qatar or in Australia, this talk will share some key lessons learned and what that means for smaller operations and publishings portfolios. Since Arend Küster changed his position and rejoined Springer Nature as the Country Manager for India since accepting the talk, he will speak in a personal capacity.