And then there were three....

The Post is surmising that since Viacom has thrown Blockbuster out of the Redstone nest, might Simon & Schuster be next? We went through painful publisher consolidation-mania a few years back, where many promises were made and absolutely none were kept, and now all that's left is Viacom/Simon & Schuster, Bertelsmann/Random House, Pearson/Penguin and News Corp.'s HarperCollins. Without Simon & Schuster, that leaves three, and three publishers is not nearly enough. Inbreeding is not desirable in genetics, nor publishing, either.

One of the things that I liked about the Viacom/Simon & Schuster sitch is that with Viacom's media ties, a publishing arm made perfect sense. Obviously my rose-colored glasses are why I don't run a media conglomerate where cash-green-colored glasses are required. Still, I hope it doesn't happen (and not just because S&S is one of my publishers).