Who needs publishers?

Publishers are often confused with printers; in fact, even in the print-on-paper world, they carry out a number of important functions. Some of these are very practical, such as commissioning, editing, promotion, sales and distribution, as well as the management of typesetting and manufacturing. Some are less tangible, but in many ways more significant - understanding the market through editorial market research, selecting and collecting content, quality land, perhaps surprisingly, quantity) control, providing the identifiable 'envelope' in which content resides, the publisher's own 'brand' (not to be overestimated), making information as retrievable as possible and providing aids to navigation. Few of these functions disappear with electronic publishing and, in fact, some become much more complex. These functions add considerable value to published information, and specialist commercial organisations are best placed to carry them out; however, these will not necessarily be established publishers in the future.