The article is all about publishing being a concentrated industry, but provides zero evidence that it is. Concentrated compared to what? Peach growers? Yes. Supermarkets? Who knows? Office supply stores? No. Airliners? Certainly not. Computer operating systems? No. eReaders? Obviously not.
In almost all industries, prosperous firms are looking to acquire, while others are declining or going bankrupt. Here is a slice of
mid-nineteenth century US publishing:
Quote:
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In 1832, William Ticknor and James Thomas Fields had gathered an impressive list of writers, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau. The duo formed a close relationship with Riverside Press, a Boston printing company owned by Henry Oscar Houghton. Shortly after, Houghton also founded a publishing company with partner George Mifflin. In 1880, Ticknor and Fields and Houghton and Mifflin merged their operations, combining the literary works of writers with the expertise of a publisher and creating a new partnership named Houghton, Mifflin and Company.
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The explanation for why firms merge has to do with capitalism as a whole, not publishing per se.
A number of current New York Times bestsellers are listed as being published by the author. Taking this into account, it may be that the average publisher size is declining.