Call it Ralph Waldo Emerson meets the digital world.

The announcement last week that Houghton Mifflin Co., one of the nation's oldest and largest book publishers, will be acquired by educational and consumer software producer Riverdeep, Inc. is yet another sign that the future of traditional communications tools is without a doubt electronic and Web-based.

Increasingly, reading will take place on a screen.

Houghton Mifflin is a book publishing stalwart so traditional that it boasts Emerson, J.R.R. Tolkien and Henry David Thoreau among its authors. Its acquisition by Riverdeep represents an interesting development for the communications world -- especially for those working with the written word.

Many of Riverdeep's products are interactive books. Its Living Books Library, for example, is an interactive storybook series for children. Houghton Mifflin, a premier text and reference book producer, currently offers many of its titles in electronic format.

Indeed, this deal clearly suggests that there will be a greater convergence of these two firms-- capabilities and products down the line. And though the focus is, for now, on the education market, it seems inevitable that it will broaden at some point soon to encompass the trade market, which includes business and reference books.