The publishing system is dysfunctional. A re-design is needed for efficient scholarly communication. The golden road to open access offers the chance to renew the publishing system fundamentally and to obliterate the drawbacks of the traditional models. The analysis of different open access business models discloses the factual strength of the author-pay model that also emerges as a success story in terms of publication formats and chances to enter the market. For the support of the author-pay model the operation of a publication funds seems to be the only option. Additionally, institutional memberships in publishing houses can lead to cost savings and administrative simplifications. Conceptually very promising, but rarely established is the overlay model. It is possible to support this model by promoting existing projects in the scholarly communities and by providing the required infrastructure. For monographs and other publication formats common in the humanities and social sciences there are models for consortial funding that deserve support. In contrast, the hybrid model cannot be evaluated equally positive, because it does not help to solve the dysfunctionality of the publishing system. Complementary to the services of the established publishing houses, research institutions should consider to extent their often rudimentary publishing services to professional services. An asynchronous adoption and thereby massive transition costs can be avoided if institutions prepare the open access world jointly and therefor activate existing panels.