Are Traditional Book Publishers Obsolete?

Matt Shatz argues they might well be. In the digital world, "self-publishing" through sites such as Amazon may be more useful than going through a traditional publisher such as Random House. Those sites know lots about their visitors and can send suggestions of appropriate titles to the right people, Shatz points out. If traditional publishers don't figure out ways to learn about their target audiences, they will be at the mercy of web distributors such as Amazon.

See Matt Shatz, "Why Online Retailers Will Squeeze Out Publishers in the Book Business," PaidContent.org, January 18, 2011.