Business Impact of Transisition to Digital: Books vs. Periodicals & Music

Mike Shatzkin: "... the problems caused by digital change for newspapers and magazines and record companies were so much more grave than they were for book publishers (so far). It is simply stated. For those businesses, the unit of appreciation does not match the unit of sale. By that I mean that record companies sold us albums when what we wanted were songs. That’s what their economics were built on. The minute we could buy songs, it blew up their business model. Newspapers sell us the weather when what we want are the box scores, or the horoscopes when what we want are the comics. There are many books which will be read cover to cover. Newspapers and magazines are rarely read cover to cover. ..."