Setting the Table for Authors and Readers

I just read an insightful comment from an article at economist.com:

"Publishing has only two indispensable participants: authors and readers. As with music, any technology that brings these two groups closer makes the whole industry more efficient—but hurts those who benefit from the distance between them."

A publisher's traditional role has been "gatekeeper"; to survive and succeed in the coming years and and centuries, it seems we need to heed our friends at the Economist and become the "facilitator." Free content, innovative distribution to personal electronic devices, feeds to blogs and facebook accounts . . . all these have the opportunity of making publishers relevant, friendly even.

Take food. The only enterprise needed for sustenance is food and humans. But you'd still rather have a 5-star chef, right? And someone to bring it to you, yes? Publishers can either let readers forage for books or authors forage for readers. Or, we can bring them together like a match-making service that only desires to be a platform for the introduction.