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Encyclopedia Britannica ends print, goes digital
Source: Agencies |
March 14, 2012, Wednesday
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Online Edition
Online Edition
IN yet another sign of the growing dominance of the digital publishing market, the oldest English-language encyclopedia still in print is moving solely into the digital age.
The Encyclopedia Britannica, which has been in continuous print since it was first published in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1768, said yesterday it will end publication of its printed editions and continue with digital versions available online.
The flagship, 32-volume printed edition, available every two years, was sold for US$1,400. An online subscription costs around US$70 per year and the company recently launched a set of apps ranging between US$1.99 and US$4.99 per month.
The company said it will keep selling print editions until the current stock of around 4,000 sets ran out.
It is the latest move Encyclopedia Britannica has made to expand its Internet reference services and move farther into educational products. It first flirted with digital publishing in the 1970s, published a version for computers in 1981 for LexisNexis subscribers and first posted to the Internet in 1994.
"The print edition became more difficult to maintain and wasn't the best physical element to deliver the quality of our database and the quality of our editorial," Jorge Cauz, president of Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc, told Reuters.
Yet even as publishing industry has created more digital products, it has struggled with financial losses, and Cauz admitted to a "long road to profitability" for many publishers.
The Encyclopedia Britannica, which has been in continuous print since it was first published in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1768, said yesterday it will end publication of its printed editions and continue with digital versions available online.
The flagship, 32-volume printed edition, available every two years, was sold for US$1,400. An online subscription costs around US$70 per year and the company recently launched a set of apps ranging between US$1.99 and US$4.99 per month.
The company said it will keep selling print editions until the current stock of around 4,000 sets ran out.
It is the latest move Encyclopedia Britannica has made to expand its Internet reference services and move farther into educational products. It first flirted with digital publishing in the 1970s, published a version for computers in 1981 for LexisNexis subscribers and first posted to the Internet in 1994.
"The print edition became more difficult to maintain and wasn't the best physical element to deliver the quality of our database and the quality of our editorial," Jorge Cauz, president of Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc, told Reuters.
Yet even as publishing industry has created more digital products, it has struggled with financial losses, and Cauz admitted to a "long road to profitability" for many publishers.
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