Before there was a web the ACS experimented with videotex and later Gopher. These metaphors can be useful for thinking about new concepts, but can become conceptual straight jackets if retained too long. After a while the concepts which at first appear abstract become concrete and the metaphors are no longer needed. The Internet has now become a concrete entity which no longer needs highway analogies. However, electronic publishing is different to paper publishing in many ways and the analogy cannot be taken too far, or opportunities for new ways to use the technology will be missed.
Publishing merges with dialogue in the on-line environment.
My experience has been that large formal organisations, such as computer societies and government agencies, have difficulty reconciling the central control they would like with publishing and the interactive nature of the 'net. Traditionally structured publications when put on-line look very dull. Readers turn away from dull unresponsive publications. It may not be that readers are any more demanding with on-line publications, but that they have better means to put their views. Also readers are more demanding as they know that any individual can publish on-line, in competition with the largest organisations and Governments, if they wish.