Publishers Killed the Paperback, Then Blamed Readers

Publishers consolidated into the Big Five, which allowed the mass-market paperback—once America's most affordable and widely available book format—to deteriorate in quality and vitality, ultimately leading to its discontinuation in 2025. Rather than blaming external factors like technology and declining education, the article argues that corporatized publishing's focus on profit over product quality may have actively contributed to declining reading habits. The mass-market paperback's original success came from making books affordable and accessible in everyday retail locations, a democratizing mission that consolidated publishers abandoned.