Britannica stops print edition and goes purely online

After 244 years, the Encyclopaedia Britannica is going out of print. But it is not going extinct. It had already gone online for more than 10 years, but from now on, it will be 100% digital.

Digital milestones for Encyclopaedia Britannica. (All images and inforgraphics in this post are from Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Digital milestones for Encyclopaedia Britannica. (All images and inforgraphics in this post are from Encyclopaedia Britannica)

The Encyclopaedia Britannica has existed since 1768.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica boasts some very prestigious sources.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica boasts some very prestigious sources.

In my mind, its greatest competitor is the 11-year-old Wikipedia, which is written and edited by a community of many thousand contributors around the world – with nearly four million articles in English, and increasingly quoted as sources in researches and reports.

Britannica’s differentiation from Wikipedia will be in its credibility, derived from its sources, and careful verificaiton and editing in its rigorous vetting process.

The 32-volume printed version (which weighs nearly 60 kilograms and costs US$1,395) will be discontinued when current inventory runs out. That’s 4,000 sets out of the 12,000 print run of the 2010 edition.

The bulk of Encyclopaedia Britannica current revenue comes from selling curriculum products in school.

The bulk of Encyclopaedia Britannica current revenue comes from selling curriculum products in school.

Britannica enjoyed the briskest sales in 1990, selling some 120,000 sets in the US. Now, the print version generates less than one percent of the company’s revenue.

The bulk of Britannica’s revenue comes from selling curriculum products in school (85 percent), while another 15 percent are from subscriptions to its website.

There are some 500 thousand subscriptions paying US$70 each year to enjoy full access to Britannica’s articles, videos and original documents.

Another general-interest encyclopedia that is still being printed in the US is the World Book, which sells a 22-volume yearly edition.

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