Brian Ford posted The death of the serious reader today in response to Jonathan Franzen’s comments in the the Guardian.
The money quote from Brian Ford is this paragraph:
One wonders if Franzen isn’t lamenting so much the loss of the “serious reader” as the loss of the status quo: Readers who don’t actually do much reading, but who save their money for those bestsellers (cough, Freedom, cough) which pique their interest two or three times a year, because a massive marketing campaign tells them it’s time to open up their wallet and splurge on the next big thing.
You’re finding this sentiment not just with books vs. ebooks, but in every other media industry as the internet flattens the distribution channel and because of that kills scarcity as devices are able to view and create more and more media.
The idea that these media companies are then using their money to try and have their current business models propped up indefinitely is terribly sad and frightening.