Cover Story: Hitting a Moving Target

With so much focus on e-reader devices, there may be a temptation to move into device making, as Hearst recently has done with its Skiff e-reader. Shatzkin believes this is a bad idea.

"I don't think the publisher can create the technological or distribution infrastructure," Shatzkin says. "They never tried to own all the bookstores. I'm skeptical about whether content and audience machines, which is what publishers are, should become technology machines. They really don't know the business. … I would say just about the last thing they should do is create their own proprietary platforms or devices."