Economist piece

There was an article on e-books that appeared in this month's Economist. The article makes reference to the fact that in some book categories (with textbooks being the specific example) digital is growing rapidly. They do not cite numbers or sources though. The do go on to say that digital could help publishers recapture the used textbook market, however. The article also makes interesting references to other technologies -- such as POD. I am not sure I fully agree with the last paragraph of the article (of which some of the commenters also make note). There are some unique values provided by other players in the distribution chain (between authors and consumers) that add value, and are able to do so at a lower cost than the publishers could do directly. Improving efficiencies along the supply chain -- definitely a thing we should do. Complete disintermediation, however, is much less likely at this point in time.