"I'll predict that within the next few years, the major publishers will come together and form their own subscription company with a revenue share" That's like

"I'll predict that within the next few years, the major publishers will come together and form their own subscription company with a revenue share" That's like saying all the hotel companies should come together and form a company to compete with Expedia and Orbitz. But the hotel companies did exactly that, when they formed a joint venture to run RoomKey.com. And the team at RoomKey built some amazing technology. But the various hotel companies, who jointly owned the joint venture, fell to fighting and they starved RoomKey.com of money and independence. So RoomKey.com could have transformed the space for booking hotels, but RoomKey was sabotaged by its owners. Which turns out to be a very common story for joint ventures -- each partner has its own internal politics, and when they form a joint venture the result is complete dysfunction. The moral of the story is: never underestimate the short-term greed and stupidity of big companies, and their ability to sabotage their own self-interest. So don't expect the major publishers to have much success launching their own subscription service.