EDITORIAL:    There is so much Sturm und Drang in publishing these days it’s hard to keep up. How are we to feel about Google Books? What will the effect of the iPad be? Will ebooks be good or bad for publishers? Is Rome burning or is that glow on the horizon the dawn of a new era of opportunity?
The demise of publishing has been predicted almost from the invention of the codex, but there is little question that we are in the midst of something big. It seems on the surface to be a matter of delivery systems, that is, the impact of electronic publishing on an industry designed to produce printed paper. But the question of how these systems work brings in its wake the much more fundamental issues of who controls them and what kind of content they contain, in other words, the very heart and soul of publishing.  (read more)