The economic news couldn’t be worse for the book industry. Now insiders are asking how literature will survive.

The end of days is here for the publishing industry — or it sure seems like it. On Dec. 3, now known as “Black Wednesday,” several major American publishers were dramatically downsized, leaving many celebrated editors and their colleagues jobless. …

Salon – Read it and weep

It’s bad.

But I’m not all that sympathetic.

Traditional book publishers are as almost as bad as music publishers, relying on a “star” system rather than allowing fair access for new talent.

If Houghton Mifflin, Simon & Schuster, Random House and Macmillan all go bankrupt, something different — and better — will rise from the ashes. They’ve been terribly slow to innovate.

Where are the audio books? Ebooks? New technologies to encourage younguns to read?

Onion – larger version