When I was a publisher, we loved Tesco. It didn’t sell a wide range of books, but if you could get one of yours on to its shelves, it sold in the tens of thousands. You could base your whole year’s finances on getting one book on Tesco’s list – and many did. At one point, we even mocked up a range of “Tesco Value” book jackets, complete with blue-and-white-striped livery. It was a bit grim, to be honest. They were desperate times for small publishers. Now, however, it’s the retail giant which seems to have the adjective “struggling” permanently affixed to it. As a result, it’s getting out of books – and digital services in general – in a big way.

Having managed to offload its online video service Blinkbox Movies to mobile operator TalkTalk, and Blinkbox Music to streaming business Guvera, Tesco has been desperately hunting for a buyer for Blinkbox Books.  Last month there was much hope that Waterstones might take it over, and finally make a decisive step into the digital realm, but that bid ultimately failed.

So what happens when an ebook service shuts down? Blinkbox books stored purchases “in the cloud”, and allowed users to read on any device, but the company was clear on its website (unlike many) that “once you’ve purchased a book from us, it’s yours and we want to make sure that you always have access to it”. Keeping that promise is important, and it’s good to see that Tesco has a plan.

Like Sony, which exited the books business before them, it’s handing everything to Kobo, which will take on all of Blinkbox’s customers and its libraries. Exactly how easy this transfer will be remains to be seen, but it’s good to see that, unlike in years past, the value of ebook libraries is starting to be recognised and cared for, even when individual ventures don’t work out.