Quote:
Originally Posted by DMcCunney
Look up the "Thor Power Tools decision". A Tax Court decision in an unrelated industry affected the way publishers valued inventory, and a whole load of stuff went out of print very quickly.
|
Thanks for the reference. It's a shame that the industry lost a lucrative way to cheat on their taxes, but that's not a cause of publishing's problems, just one in a host of symptoms.
(Edit: An excellent description of the Thor Power Tools Decision is
here.)
The publishing industry has put themselves in this position, thanks to chasing the fastest buck, to the detriment of quality product or consumer benefit. And now, like so many other industries, when it comes time to make a change, they have realized that they don't want to spare the resources needed to invest in new tech because it feels too good watching it fill up their bank accounts.
The American auto industry, when faced with the need to change to more economical cars, simply decided to force their agenda on consumers, and to Hell with change. Of course, it was only a quick fix, designed to get the present stockholders into a comfortable retirement before the bottom fell out. The auto industry now sees how badly that tack worked, as foreign auto makers took advantage of their malaise to move in and capture the markets, and the once-mightly industry is now struggling to remain profitable.
Publishing's retail and distribution channels are changing. In fact, like the auto industry, most of it is being driven by economy, and the new guys are providing it, while the old publishers are trying to keep the consumers' mind off of it with expensive books and big names... literary Hummers. If small publishers and independents similarly move into the gaps left by the big publishers, there won't be much left for the big pubs to do but watch their market share decline even faster. If they do not reverse their prospects, they will become boutique publishers, having nothing left to sell but the Hummers.