Is there a long tail?

The “Long Tail” — both the book and the article — describe how the Internet has enabled companies to serve tiny niche markets profitably. Often the “tail” the small nice products are as profitable as hit products. As I will relate in a future posting, my dissertation shows evidence of this effect even for B2B banking services…

A recent HBR article raises empirical questions about the Long Tail effect. Anderson reponds on his website: 

http://www.longtail.com/the_long_tail/2008/06/excellent-hbr-p.html

[An interesting side question is why must important articles be expanded into books in order to get traction…]