I read this link expecting the "gas-powered truck" to be powered by natural gas, and for it to be a modern phenomenon, not a petroleum-powered truck killing magazines through bookstores.
Very interesting argument. As it turns out, it isn't only the quarterlies that are getting whacked, it is also magazines like saturday evening post, or life or look as well.
The Mother Jones article sounds a little eliteist in this light. However, we are consuming, by OP's measure, more stories now than in the heyday of the quarterlies.
The first "gas-powered truck" was born one year after Ernest Hemmingway, so I'm going to say that it was something else. Likewise, the book-of-the-month club started in 1926 and their business model was basically the same as Amazon's, except they did the ordering. So, I wouldn't blame distribution systems of any sort.
Actually, the negative-option book club is an entirely different business model from Amazon. Book of the Month, moreover, contracted for special printings; they were an aggregator/publisher, not a reseller.
The Hemingway point is really unconvincing; by "truck", of course, I mean the changing economies of direct interstate shipment of bulk items. When Hemingway was born, moving mass economically meant either water or rail transit; when he died, trucks were careening down interstate highways to deliver parcels for a fraction of what they cost in the 19th century.
