Publishers and Monopoly Capitalism

Writing in the New York Times, Doreen Carvajal looks at how Amazon uses Internet dominance to increase its profits:

"The struggle comes at a time that Amazon’s power as a bookseller is increasing, with sales growing online in an otherwise tepid global book market. Some publishers fear that with the introduction of Amazon’s Kindle electronic reader, the company will rise into a position to be able to demand more concessions."

www.nytimes.com/2008/06/16/business/media/16amazon.html

(It must, however, be pointed out that Hachette Livre, one of the publisher's described in the article under the heading of "small publisher", is in fact the largest UK publisher with a market share of 16% of the UK market according to the Bookseller.)

[With thanks to Library Link of the Day]