It's really good to see the economist giving some profile to this issue which governments and regulators have been slow to respond to.

'This is not simply a question of cultural memory, it's also about business continuity and ongoing exploitation of the value which are embedded in digital resources. For example, by making informed decisions and efforts about what to keep, a digital preservation strategy also helps companies and institutions be confident about what they need to priorize and what they can afford to ditch. That makes information resources more responsive and business processes which depend on them more efficient.

The conclusion: digital preservation is not just about memory institutions and it brings long-term and immediate benefits.

There's a small coalition of agencies working on this problem in the UK and Ireland, and if you want to find out more, then have a look at: http://www.dpconline.org/ '