Pearson distrib follow up

DISTRIBUTED WEIGHT, PART 3: Everyone believes they're in the running for the indie sweepstakes involving the newly formed cabal of Merge, Beggars and Secretly Canadian, who are bargaining collectively with the goals of drastically reducing their distribution fees, holding on to their digital rights and selling directly to the independent retail sector. The big independent distributors have for years been hanging their hats on increased label services in order to attract new business. But it's becoming clear that this label consortium (which some observers say includes Saddle Creek and Domino) are only looking for pick, pack and ship services since they all have strong sales, marketing and promotion departments in house. Does this open the door for a wholesaler rather than a straight-ahead distribution unit to snag the billing that some put at around $20 million? Stay tuned. (6/11p)