FT.com / Media - Wylie’s split with publisher seen as bad omen: "The severing of ties between publisher Random House and Andrew Wylie, one of the world’s most powerful literary agents, left many executives fearing the showdown over e-book rights would lead to the death of the 500-year-old publishing business as it is known. ... It is not the first omen about the potential end of the publisher’s role as middle man in the books business. The role of the music label, in much the same way, has been threatened by the internet. ... "
Here's my take: Publishers as a class are not in danger of extinction. But the enormous dinosaur houses who dominated for so long? They find themselves hobbled by new climate circumstances - crippled by their weight, this no longer an advantage.
Our Random Houses and Simon and Schusters - still carrying on standard (though declining) print/brick-and-mortar bookselling - labor under the burden of legacy expenses/infrastructure/corporate cultures wed to the old publishing model, a model which provides less and less sustenance every day.
It is somewhat easier for smaller players to adapt their businesses and evolve. (Survival of the fittest.) Also, the low cost-of-entry enabled by eBooks and POD allow new players, indie authors, and other upstarts to mount significant competition to the "majors" in a way they never could before.
The most important capital in this environment is intellectual capital: the smarts to assemble, promote and sell worthy publications.
The dinosaurs are long gone. But the birds remain. Small is beautiful.
