| You might be following what is expected to be | | | | not to play catch-up. |
| Blockbuster's impending bankruptcy filing. | | | | I see parallels between Blockbuster and the book |
| Once, this giant dominated movie rentals, | | | | publishing industry. The latter has been slow to |
| squeezing out smaller independents and chains. | | | | adapt to Amazon, to used-book sites, the rise of |
| Now, it's stock has been de-listed from a major | | | | the Internet as a free source of information, and |
| exchange, and today, you can purchase about 70 | | | | to the increasingly popular medium of ebooks. |
| shares for the price of a single movie rental. | | | | Recently, giant book retailer Barnes and Noble put |
| Blockbuster's failure is attributable to its "Have it | | | | itself up for sale. Are they the Blockbuster of |
| our way" philosophy. | | | | books? |
| Notorious for poor service, high late charges, and | | | | Just this week I've been agenting a new and |
| its perpetuation of $5 rental fees in the face of | | | | controversial title to a host of New York |
| $1 kiosks, Netflix, and streaming videos, it has | | | | publishers. It has best-seller written all over it, but |
| been excruciatingly slow to adapt to rental | | | | they are reflexively rejecting it. With wagons |
| alternatives, many of which offer better value, | | | | circled in a siege mentality, they're too busy |
| selections, and convenience. | | | | ducking arrows to focus on opportunities. |
| Before you chalk-up their radical downsizing to the | | | | Either they find a business model that works, and |
| forces of creative destruction that inexorably | | | | soon, or what we have known of this industry will |
| replace old technologies with new, Blockbuster | | | | also be selling for pennies on the dollar. |
| could have done much to stave off its demise, if | | | | |