Does the definition of "publisher" need to expand?
Tim O'Reilly: Publishers think way too narrowly about what kind of business they are in, and as a result, are blind to how the competitive landscape is changing under their feet. If someone has roots in ink-on-paper, they are a publisher, but if they are web- or mobile-native, they are not. But this is wrong-headed! Put another way: Why would you think Zagat is a publisher but Yelp isn't? They both perform similar jobs. Competition should be defined by the jobs publishers do for users.
That being said, curation and aggregation are among the core jobs of publishing, and it's clear to me these jobs still need to be done. There is a real need for someone to winnow out the wheat from the chaff as more content becomes available online. (Of course, Google is also in the curation business, but they do it algorithmically.) Eventually, there will be new ways publishers get paid for doing these jobs, but there are also going to be new ways to do them.
O'Reilly's vision of the future of publishing is fascinating. Read it all.