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This is old news.
We've known from the start that under agency pricing, retailers get a bigger cut, and publishers take a smaller portion of the pie.
Publishers have pushed for this for a few reasons.
• They assert that heavy discounts are undercutting the value of their products.
• The "fuss about Amazon" is that they were subsidizing lower prices, and it is likely that once they establish a solid monopoly on ebooks, they will be able to make increasingly stringent demands on the publishers. Agency pricing flattens the playing field, preserves competition, and hopefully curbs some of Amazon's heavy-handed behavior.
• They want to be able to work with demand-based pricing. I.e. when something is brand-new and demand is high, and with no limit on supply, prices should be higher. When demand slackens, you lower the prices to continue sales.
In the past this was seen as "protecting hardcover sales," but that analysis ignores the fact that higher prices on hardcovers are basically a physical excuse for demand-based pricing. (It certainly doesn't cost $10 more to make a hardcover than it does a paperback.)
I'd also assume this was intended as an incentive to the retailers; in exchange for the loss of the ability to set prices, their margins go up.
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