By the time Apple released the iPad in April of 2010, only four months after Steve Jobs first announced his "magical and revolutionary" new machines, traditional publishers were gripped by a collective delusion. They had convinced themselves that tablet computers and smart phones would allow them to unwind their unhappy histories with the Internet.

For publishers whose businesses had evolved during the long day of print newspapers and magazines, the expansion of the Internet was terribly disorienting. The Web taught readers that they might read stories whenever they liked without charge, and it offered companies more efficient ways to advertise; both parties spent less.