Death of the Exhibition Catalogue?

No more exhibition catalogues? Those weighty tomes of knowledge and color reproductions that are as costly and time intensive to produce as exhibitions themselves? NOOOO! How will we prop open our doors and impress our friends with our coffee table decor (of course I caught the Cezanne exhibition at the Musee d'Orsay!) But seriously folks, the entire publishing industry is transitioning through a period of crisis. Educational publishing has been virtually obliterated; the newspaper industry limps along looking for ways to stay viable. I am surprised that luxury productions such as $60 catalogues haven't already disappeared but according to Real Clear Arts museums are now indeed questioning the point of catalogues in the digital age: http://www.artsjournal.com/realcleararts/2010/09/exhibition-catalogues.html
Catalogues are not published to produce revenue but to become the legacy of an exhibition. They are loss leaders; expectations the museum-going crowd has that a museum is meant to fulfill (this also includes a cafe). The shop at my museum makes virtually no money from the sale of books (can you say AMAZON?) and our institution will not be able to rest easy on the royalties rolling in.

True as well that lenders to an exhibition expect to see their works reproduced in a catalogue and not to do so can be a deal-breaker. As a curator I have lived through the production of many a catalogue that exhausted me as much as organizing the exhibition. In the end, though, I knew that the catalogue would have lasting value as a comprehensive document of the show. Not a connoisseur of the e-book, I admit I have not been informed of their great advantages. One respondant to the blog post points out that the reproduction of images is not high resolution on e-books. I am sure this will change as technology in that area improves and becomes more popular. Until that time, I am fairly sure the vast majority of museum supporters comprise an audience that is likely still attached to paper. At least, this I believe to be true.