A New Twist on The Long Tail

In 2004 Chris Anderson popularized an Internet merchandising theory known as The Long Tail. He concluded that the potentially gigantic inventory of Internet merchants would considerably increase sales on items that are seldom stocked by terrestrial competitors. Presumably, the point is even more applicable to Digital Media since there is no physical stocking required and the inventory can theoretically be almost infinite. In mid-2006 Anderson followed the article with a more complete analysis in his book entitled The Long Tail. About the same time, Lee Gomes of The Wall Street Journal challenged the theory’s legitimacy. Gomes contacted som...