New partnerships are needed to move away from paywalls and avoid article publishing charge-based publishing.• It remains difficult for small societies to negotiate with consortia, and partnerships with other societies may be a route forward.• Being open to different open access routes and using different pilots are key to learning which routes will be sustainable in the future.• While the starting position for most 'read and publish' offerings is based on historical spend, this will need to be re-evaluated in the longer term.• The lack of independent, universal reporting mechanisms and universally adopted persistent identifiers for institutions is a barrier to establishing agreements and one that needs a cost-effective solution.

This article announces the Biochemical Society and Portland Press’ joint commitment to commencing a sustainable and equitable transition to open access and describes early steps on our road to a more ‘open’ ethos. The paywall conundrum is explored as part of this, and Portland Press’ first steps towards transformative models are described.

The Biochemical Society and Portland Press are committed to open scholarship. In 2020 we launched our Unlimited Read & Publish programme. This article summarizes the progress that has been made since then and explores the effect that our transitioning sales offerings have had on paywalls to published content. The share of content in our transitioning (hybrid) journals published open access (OA) is the highest it has ever been and continues to increase as more institutions take up transformative agreements with us each year. Open data and clear communication are key parts of the on-going transition, and progress with publishing workflows and data availability have been made. With over 40% of 2021’s published content in hybrid journals converted to OA, the Biochemical Society and Portland Press are also actively scoping future models. For this, we are seeking sustainable and collaborative pathways to completing our transition in a way that is globally equitable and inclusive.