Container-less Content? Not in This Digital Age.

We never find pure, unmediated content as it's always framed in some way. There is always a system for distribution. Moreover we never come to content without certain preconceptions and expectations coloring our consumption. In other words we don't encounter content immanently -- we encounter frame-content pairs. Typically the frame for long-form written content was the book. That is, a combination of paper, printing technology, ink, text, artwork, economic value, and social status which collectively provide a frame for long-form writing. But it needn't always be the book, which is now merely one frame among many. Looked at this way, the significance for publishing starts to become clear. Publishers are not just producers of books but constructors of frames.