Publishing and a race to the bottom

There is an article in the FT highlighting the woes of Pearson, and the wisdom of selling the FT and the Economist. My interest is in the vigour and prospects for textbooks in a digital age, a topic that feature highly in the article. As some other commentators state, maybe we are going to see a race to the bottom with margins being slashed as ‘free’ but poor quality becomes the norm. Just like what has happened to most quality journalism. There are of course alternatives, if only the universities would step up.