Open Markets’ report uncovers true culprit of book shortages: destructive mergers

WASHINGTON – The New York Times yesterday reported that a chokepoint in printing capacity was resulting in severe delays in the production of books. The Times blamed the chokepoint on three factors: a sudden spike in sales, disruptions due to the rise of e-books, and financial problems in the printing industry, worsened by the Justice Department’s decision last year to block a merger between the two dominant printing corporations. On the contrary,  the shortage of printing capacity was created primarily by the destructive roll-up of press capacity by private equity firms. 

In response, Barry Lynn, executive director of Open Markets Institute, released the following statement:

“Any report condemning the Justice Department’s successful effort to block a merger between two dominant printing corporations misidentifies the true culprit of book shortages. In fact, blocking the merger between Quad and LSC Communications was the first step toward protecting America’s book readers and authors. 

“The shortage of printing capacity has been growing more acute for years, driven by the destructive roll-up of press capacity by private equity firms, as detailed in this 2019 letter by the Open Markets Institute, PEN International, and the Authors Guild. The problem with the Justice Department is not that it stopped last year’s deal. It is that antitrust enforcers failed to stop these two corporations from rolling up the rest of the industry, and that the department has entirely failed to address Amazon’s dangerous monopolization over bookselling.

“As the Times rightly noted, the Great American Book Shortage comes at a time when demand for printed books is up some 5% over last year, as Americans seek both to entertain themselves in dark days and to learn more about pressing issues such as COVID-19, the Trump administration, the Black Lives Matter movement, and an increasingly chaotic world. But it’s important to be clear about the lesson. The source of the problem is not technological change or regulation; it is monopolization driven by the pincer movement of Big Tech and Wall Street private equity.

“What we see here, in short, is another instance of how monopolists directly threaten American democracy.”

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