Another dramatic development in the Borders story yesterday: The nation’s number one brick and mortar book retailer, Barnes & Noble, which initially declined comment on Borders’ predicament, changed its mind and issued a doozy, according to a Publishers Weekly report by Calvin Reid and Jim Milliot.

On a day when Borders execs were supposedly meeting with Big Six publishers to plead for better terms in order to avoid bankruptcy, B&N issued a statement making it hard for publishers to do so. “We think the playing field should be even,” the B&N statement warns publishers. “We expect publishers to offer same terms to all other booksellers, including Barnes & Noble and independent booksellers.  We fully expect publisher’s will require Borders to pay their bills on the same basis upon which all other booksellers pay theirs.  Any changes in publishers terms should be made available to all.”

As the PW report notes, it’s not exactly an unfair demand: “If publishers are, in effect, giving Borders more attractive terms—i.e. a much longer time before having to make a payment—is this an unfair advantage over other retail chains as well as independent bookstores who are also struggling in the current economic climate?”

On the other hand, keeping Borders alive is an imperative for not only the publishers, whom Borders owes a significant amount of money, but for the rest of the industry, too. Such a significant loss of bookstores means a huge lessening of the presence of books in our culture, less opportunity for readers, and less healthy competition for the two behemoth retailers left standing, Amazon and B&N. (All of which, by the way, makes it odd — and unfortunate — that the American Booksellers Association has yet to issue a comment on the situation.)

In any event, as PW observes, “Right now, in the face of Borders’ suspending payments, publishers don’t have much choice but to accept the bank’s terms.”

And whatever those terms are, time is running out. As a Forbes report details,  Borders stock continued its plunge another 12.5% yesterday.

And oh by the way, guess what company is thinking of making an offer for those less and less costly shares? Right — according to the Forbes report, it’s B&N.