Wow, this is interesting. Can you expand on the question you ask in your wrap-up?

Seems to me this is doing everything possible to protect the bird in hand, and risking the future. Protect the hugely profitable print business, even if you risk arming online competitors that will eventually render IYP irrelevant.

Related question, what did you think of the Gomes piece in the WSJ? Huge smack-down of the search engine's local efforts to date, and endorsement of the old-fashioned book!