In my field, here is what happened to one of the leading journals published by Elsevier:

http://theoryofcomputing.org/crisis.html

Crisis in the cost of journals

Publishers of scientific journals today actually impede the flow of information rather than enable it.   -- Jeff Ullman

... I strongly commend you on your courage... ToC will give many more researchers a reason to mount a boycott against for-profit journals. -- Don Knuth, greeting the launch of the Theory of Computing

On October 25, 2003, Don Knuth sent a 14-page letter to the Board of Editors of the Journal of Algorithms. Pointing out the "turmoil in the world of scholarly publishing,"Knuth analysed the economics of periodicals in theoretical computer science. Knuth's letter precipitated the dramatic resignation of the entire editorial board of the Journal of Algorithms over the pricing policies of its publisher, Elsevier, and created a new, society-owned journal, ACM Transactions on Algorithms. (See  here for more on this). [...]

It will take some time, but there's a longer list of Open Access journals every day so more choice for authors.