Does this mean Borders will be saved? The bookstore chain finally presents a business plan to its unsecured creditors (which basically means the landlords who own the shopping centers where you find the stores and the publishers who print the books that they sell). One thing that caught my eye was moving their corporate headquarters from the relatively affluent college town of Ann Arbor to the struggling former industrial leviathan of Detroit. The Motor City could certainly use a major company moving their HQ into town, even if it is a struggling a company. Should Borders ultimately survive, it may even draw other businesses into Detroit.

Unfortunately (?), analysts are not so sanguine that this will work. Specifically, whether publishers trust that Borders has actually figured out a business plan going forward that will enable them to be pay publishers in full and on time for, you know… books. This has been a long running problem, as the bookstore has been trying to classify the money they already owe to them as “loans.”

As I have noted before, I cannot wish ill on Borders. Though I may prefer to shop at an indie bookstore, the book publishing industry as whole will be gravely hurt if the second largest chain in America falls. And those hurt won’t just be the Random Houses, but also the Copper Canyon and Graywolf and Coffeehouse presses.