For some reason, this reminds me of how adult movie theaters were put out of business by pr0n VHS tapes which were replaced by pr0n DVDs which were made obsolete by the Interwebitubes.

Borders has been delaying payments to book publishers in signs that it may be one of the first major victims of e-books. Early reports from Publishers Marketplace on Friday said it was putting off the payments to help refinance its debt but also wasn’t certain that the plan would be effective. It might have to break its existing credit deals early into 2011 after facing a “liquidity shortfall,” it said.
[…]
E-books have been credited in part to the damage done to Borders and even more successful stores like Barnes & Noble, where digital downloads are mostly replacing paper copies rather than adding to the business. Borders has been exploring the possibility of financing from an investor to buy Barnes & Noble and get a successful business through a takeover.

Any financial collapse at Borders could have a ripple effect on the e-book business. It would cost Kobo one of its most important markets for e-readers and would close one of the few major online book stores. The shift could feed Amazon, Apple and other survivors with extra customers.

In a vaguely not unrelated topic, here’s one guy’s take on how iPads, etc. are killing the old media model.




  1. bobbo, people who vote Republican are not necessarily stupid, but enough stupid people vote Republican to keep the party alive says:

    Quantum–very impressive. You came real close to the singularity, but I would still add using books to build a book case: classic! Books you have read that aren’t worth reading again become the vertical building blocks. I got misty eyed when my book bookcase got donated to the local paperback store.

    I owned a betamax for a long time. Even wrote Sony a letter telling him to wise up and increase the size of the cassette so he could compete with VHS. He had years to make this simple change but didn’t listen to bobbo and lost that market. I thought he might listen as I met him in Waikiki one trip. With two other non-body guard looking types at a sushi bar. He was happy I had ordered in Japanese and was telling friends about my trip to China and how downscale it was compared to Japan. At least, thats how I remember it. Ha, ha.

    They say change is traumatic. Most times we all thing: not to me. but then every once in a while you notice the wounds. I don’t even look for pay phones any more. Not a deep wound, but it leaves a mark.

    As I’ve posted several times: its not the loss of books that will matter as INFO is still available and its arguable that links/updates/verification/forwarding/access/variety/decentralization will make INFORMATION a value added resource for society. No. Its the destruction of magazines and newspapers that contains the injuries and that relates back to INFORMATION. The quality/type of information is changing in ways we can’t predict.

    I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

  2. Faxon says:

    I have a Kindle II. After reading tens of thousasnds of pages on it, I realized I don’t like reading on it. It now sits unused. I much prefer buying good used books for very reasonable prices, which, after adding the $3.99 shipping Amazon merchants charge, still usually is far under 9.99 for a kindle vaporware file.
    I love the feel of a real book, and there is nothing that will replace it. I doubt books are going away.

  3. bobbo, people who vote Republican are not necessarily stupid, but enough stupid people vote Republican to keep the party alive says:

    Faxon: you remind me of the scene Marvin Belli played in Startrek with the same message. Searched Youtube and it doesn’t appear. Practically the same words, think he may have added “the smell” of books as well.

  4. bobbo, people who vote Republican are not necessarily stupid, but enough stupid people vote Republican to keep the party alive says:

    Not on Youtube, but on CBS:

    http://cbs.com/classics/star_trek/video/?pid=gsXBhCZh6SuXUqyCdaowzKd2Htg5HVyE&play=true

    Excellent full screen HD. what a god-awful show.

    Does show the value of books though: when I try to fast forward/skip the show to Melvin’s scene with the books, I get a “This Video is Not Available” screen.

    books are “mine”/permanent. Thats why I will never use the cloud.

    but the advantage of cyberspace: for some reason Fiona Apple is singing–I like “I Want You.” soulfull.

  5. So what says:

    When you can provide me with a portable flexible, fold-able single sheet that has long, long, long, battery life, color screen with touch application and web surfing and the ability to access the 400 odd books that I currently have, that won’t cost as much as a house, to purchase and feed, only then will I give up my dead tree books.

    ps it cannot under any conditions or situations be associated in any way with apple or its subsidaries.

  6. Peter iNova says:

    The big book stores are completely disinterested in dealing with eBooks in general.

    For over a decade they’ve been thumbing their collective noses at my successful series of 19 interactive eBooks on digital photography, and now, all of the sudden, it’s boo hoo time in the get-your-mind-in gear department.

    Here’s the latest: iPad-friendly, big PDF eBook about Photoshop Actions, including even 700+ ready-to-use original PS CS5 Actions. (As seen on DPReview.)

    http://hdslrreview.com/HDSLRreview/Resources_2.html

  7. Peter iNova says:

    Here’s that URL made tiny:

    http://tinyurl.com/28jbvjl

  8. Butter Butt says:

    “Are eBooks Killing Borders?”

    Does anyone really care???

    or Would anyone even notice???

    eBooks all the way….

  9. chris says:

    #7 Right, Amazon is a bigger change than ebooks.

    Facing an aggressive discounter, brick and mortar shops have done… nothing.

    Good job, guys!

  10. Special Ed says:

    I like going through Border’s and picking out the security RFID tags from books and dropping them into the women’s strollers and bags who think they are in a fucking day care center.

  11. CrankyGeeksFan says:

    Barnes & Noble, Borders, etc. will end up like pre-recorded music stores; Spec’s, Tower Records, Sam Goody, Blockbuster Music, Musicland, Record Bar, etc.

  12. Faxon says:

    I prefer real books. I bought a Kindle, and it was a mistake. I tried it for about a year. A year without real books was enough for me. I decided that for me, a real book is far more satisfying.
    If you like ebooks, I understand why. I did not sell or give away the Kindle. I still might read a book on it some day. I have a bunch on there. It’s just that none of them are as easy on the eyes as ink on paper. Nobody here has addressed that. Electronic books suck visually. Nobody can possibly claim that the illustrations on a Kindle are worth a shit.
    If you want to compare cheap ass paperback books with a Kindle, fine. Buy a full size hardback book that I buy for a few bucks used is so superior a reading experience, I wonder if some of you actually read anything on an ebook reader, but instead, only debate the benefits of the acquisition technology, which I admit, is amazing to see when a book arrives in seconds. Still, it’s not as much fun as getting a great condition used book in my mailbox for a pittance.
    Now, if you don’t agree, that’s fine. I am not going to argue or insult you, unlike somebody on here.

  13. steelcobra says:

    Unlike Borders, Barnes & Noble HAS seen that print isn’t necessarily going to be the future except to a few like Faxon and Heinrich who care about the style more than the substance of a book: its words. Unlike Borders, which acts more like a Best Buy in its sale of eReaders, B&N looked at Kindle’s concept and saw some holes that they could fill in a way only possible with a physical store.

    On-site browsing as if looking through books on the shelves.
    Library lending.
    Friend lending.

    While certainly, for image-heavy books a hardcopy is better, but when reading a title that is solely within the words, an e-ink screen is perfect. Better than LCD, certainly. But trumpeting the death of one store because it’s competitor is dying is looking at only a small piece of the picture.

  14. the_last_irish_monk says:

    I’ll be staying with paper books. When the power grid fails in a few years (and it will), you won’t be able to get your ebooks, which is probably part of the dumbing down plan. Ebooks will become the province of the rich, and the rest will content themselves with TV and video games. However, for those few still eager to learn to read and know something about the world, there will still be a few people like me, with vast paper libraries, preserving the world’s knowledge in a format that is accessible to everyone…and that doesn’t require an electronic medium to use. Ebooks are nice…but very short sighted.

  15. Animby - just phoning it in says:

    #45 – Are you really the last Irish Monk? My god, who will support all the pubs?

    In any case, I’ve got a pretty extensive library me own self. On a Nook e-reader. And you know what? When the grid goes down, I’ve got a solar cell to recharge my reader and my laptop. And, if the power goes off because of, oh – say an insurrection or rumors that Alfie is going to visit, and I have to move, MY books will be coming with me. How long will it take you to pack up and move your “vast paper library”?

    I’ll tell you what: As a doctor I have a pretty durned big collection of very expensive reference books. As fast as I can buy (or steal pirated downloads) I am converting them all to e-format. I frequently go off into uncharted realms to practice my quackery and I used to be able to carry a couple of reference books with me. Now I have a whole library at all times. When a doctor in a civilized area would phone up a consultant, I turn on my Nook.

    The future is bright. Bring on the color ereaders.

  16. JimD says:

    eMedia distrubtion should LOWER THE COST TO DELIVER MEDIA to the consumer and broaden his/her choice !!! No more physical distribution of DEAD TREES !!! Unless you want one, but the price might go way up !!! But before that happens, the online costs have to GO WAY DOWN, and the old Media Corps can’t handle that, their structure would (and must crumble) ! So expect to see some authors self publishing behind some kind of micro-payments system, like the iStore ….

  17. Smartalix says:

    The Kindle is a perfect example of a well-built single-purpose device, something we’ve forgotten can be popular. The last device of that type was the iPod, and people used to condemn it because it “only” played music.

    Why do you need a color display to read a book? How many books (non-graphic) does the average person read?

    In its current iteration, the Kindle has an extremely long battery life, an excellent screen for reading text, and a good form factor.

    I recently got a Kindle, and I must admit I was not expecting the reading experience to be good at all. I was pleasantly surprised.

    (Full disclosure and/or shameless plug – my SF novel Cyberchild is available on the Kindle for only 99 cents!)

  18. bobbo, people who vote Republican are not necessarily stupid, but enough stupid people vote Republican to keep the party alive says:

    Hey SmartAlix==published! Good on you. Animby and I are jealous. “geo-sociopolitical economic forces” made me want to gag, but you didn’t write that. Uniformly good reviews except from waverider who on its face, if true, makes a good criticism, one your editor should have talked to you about?

    Big problem with self publishing, too much ego too easy to issue a so-so book that could be made better with constructive input.

    Excapist literature, yes it does have its place and reading anything is usually better than reading nothing. Easier to escape than muckrake the same issue in reality as to what is going on right now. Serendipitous there is another thread on drug testing human subjects. Which one should we “really” be reading and taking action on?

    Yea, veerily.

  19. Rick Cain says:

    I’m not too worried about what private enterprise dies as a result of new technologies.

    Gutenberg put cloistered monks out of business but I feel it was a worthwile change.

    Its looking like professional porn is going out of business too because do-it-yourself porn is available and they don’t charge for it, they just want you to look.

  20. Glenn E. says:

    Buy books?! I get books on loan from my public library, 99% of the time. Same with DVDs of movies and Tv series. They’ve never jerked me around with any phony late fees. As some other renters have reportedly done. While the idea of the convenience of an eBook is nice. It’s still a bit too fragile to me. And if there’s access to power for a time. The ebook will run down, and none of the stored volumes can be read. I can always read a printed book by daylight. Do they sell solar recharger panels for these ebooks?

    Another drawback are the “deals” one has to sign up for to make ebooks and iPads useful. Generally they’re with a single content provider, and there’s little competition to keep the costs down. And it rides on the back of whatever phone or internet provider one has. Which also wants a piece of the action, by charging toll for music, movie, and book downloads. Hopefully, someday digital connectivity will become like the public libraries and public roads. Covered by taxes. And free to state residence to use, within reasonable limits. Only mostly large businesses would be charged for a tiered service.

  21. Rich says:

    If they want to survive they need to rethink what it is they sell. It seems they are focusing on the transport mechanism (physical books) and not the true product (words).

  22. noelanir says:

    Borders is chopping down the forest and is leveling family bookstores to boot!


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