It’s Today: Borders Files For Bankruptcy; 193 Stores To Close

I don't have much to say about Borders' decision to file for bankruptcy except to express sympathy for both the employees that will be let go and the communities which may have come to depend -- for whatever reason, ideal or not -- on some of the stores soon to close as a primary source for reading culture. Comics publishers seem to have long ago braced for this eventuality so it's hard for me to project this latest development as necessarily catastrophic for anyone out there, but I suppose we'll know soon if that's the case. I do think that we may have underplayed the effect over time that the retailer's slow-motion slide into adynamy has had on the foundational strength of the comics market, though, and the long-term potential effects of a shrinking platform for print reading retail this represents. This is a symbolic day in terms of those stories, for sure, above and beyond the direct effects of the move into bankruptcy.

image from a book I bought at a Borders a long time ago
 
posted 6:00 am PST | Permalink
 

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