Sometime Friday, Amazon stopped directly selling all books put out by the publisher Macmillan, due to a disagreement over future pricing of e-books. Let’s be clear, it’s not just that Amazon wasn’t selling Macmillan books on the Kindle. Amazon was no longer directly selling any books from this publisher, though one can still buy them new and used on the website through third-party vendors. This is a dispute with massive consequences for publishers — and it’s not great for Amazon, either. So why did both companies find themselves in this mutually destructive game of chicken?

A Bay Area website revealed today an internal Time Inc. document outlining plans to start competing with Amazon’s Kindle and other electronic readers before the end of the year. Buried in the piece however is perhaps a more stunnign revelation – Time Inc. execs appear to have discussed the new venture with rival magazine publishers, including Conde Nast, Meredith, and Hearst. Can magazine publisher save themselves via an alliance?