In this presentation, I investigate claims that publishers add little value to scholarly communication by asking about those parts of publishing overlooked when the focus is exclusively on content. Evaluating a study by Martin Klein, Peter Broadwell, Sharon Farb, and Todd Grappone, I not only point to problems with its assumptions about value, sampling methods, and choice of measures, but also highlight the study’s silence on work performed by publishers on documents, as opposed to content. I conclude by asserting that by ignoring labor performed on documents, scholars partake in a politics of immediation that undermines their ability to understand the scholarly communication system.