The article is quite honest:
Quote:
|
“If you want bookstores to stay alive, then you want to slow down this movement to e-books,” said Mike Shatzkin, chief executive of the Idea Logical Company, a consultant to publishers. “The simplest way to slow down e-books is not to make them too cheap.”
|
Translation: Don't change the current system because we know how it works and because the transition might hurt.
The math is quite flawed. Hardcopies are often read by several people (e.g. there is quite an active second hand market) with no revenues for the publisher what soever. DRM protected e-books are way more complicated to share (yes I know, it is possible...). There are quite some cases where I did not buy a book because it was a pain to get a copy - e.g. books that first come out overseas. Until they actually hit the local market, I forgot that I wanted to get them. The last new book I bought because it was available as e-book and I
could buy it without waiting to reach a book store near me.
E-books on the other hand can be stored and made available for sale for almost no costs. There is a longer selling tail even with the option of a revival of an old book (e.g. Herman Hessen, ...). Additionally, I bet the loss rate of digital copies is way higher then with hardcover books. E-books and standards will change fast and I am not sure how many of the ebooks sold today still will be readable in 5 or 10 years.
Bottom line: e-books will have a different economic line up with lot's of unknown. Publisher simply don't want to venture into this new area if there is any risk for the current business model.