After 244 Years, Encyclopaedia Britannica Stops the Presses
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After 244 Years, Encyclopaedia Britannica Stops the Presses
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Re: After 244 Years, Encyclopaedia Britannica Stops the Presses
#2This is a fantastic example of a company embracing technology (or more generally newer forms of business) and not holding on to the "old way" of doing business.
The fact that their printed volumes account for a negligible amount of their revenue shows that this wasn't even a spur of the moment decision, they saw the writing on the wall a long time ago and planned accordingly.
Re: After 244 Years, Encyclopaedia Britannica Stops the Presses
#3It's weird, but I kinda wouldn't mind having a set of the last Encyclopaedia Britannica. The zenith of 244 years of tradition, an emblem of the transition of our knowledge to an online space, and still very functional in a quaint way...
Re: After 244 Years, Encyclopaedia Britannica Stops the Presses
#4$1,400 to buy it in book form. That may be part of the reason it's not being printed anymore.
Re: After 244 Years, Encyclopaedia Britannica Stops the Presses
#5“Some people will feel sad about it and nostalgic about it. But we have a better tool now. The Web site is continuously updated, it’s much more expansive and it has multimedia.”
The future is clearly http://www.britannica.com
Re: After 244 Years, Encyclopaedia Britannica Stops the Presses
#6> Only 8,000 sets of the 2010 edition have been sold, and the remaining 4,000 have been stored in a warehouse until they can be purchased.
I suspect it won't take them very long to sell those copies after this announcement.
Re: After 244 Years, Encyclopaedia Britannica Stops the Presses
#7This is a fantastic example of a company embracing technology (or more generally newer forms of business) and not holding on to the "old way" of doing business. The fact that their printed volumes account for a negligible amount of their revenue shows that this wasn't even a spur of the moment decision, they saw the writing on the wall a long time ago and planned accordingly.
It's a terrible example (or perhaps a "fantastic" example of a company avoiding reality for eons). The writing has been on the wall for EB for at least 15 years, in fact there was even a book written about it:
http://www.amazon.com/Blown-Bits-Economics-Information-Trans...
How do we know they're even going to make money now?
Re: After 244 Years, Encyclopaedia Britannica Stops the Presses
#8Looks like Britannica got flushed down the public toilet:
http://www.ideasinactiontv.com/tcs_daily/2004/11/the-faith-b...
Re: After 244 Years, Encyclopaedia Britannica Stops the Presses
#9“Some people will feel sad about it and nostalgic about it. But we have a better tool now. The Web site is continuously updated, it’s much more expansive and it has multimedia.” The future is clearly http://www.britannica.com
The future is so clearly not britannica.com. That site doesn't even work without javascript, and where the heck is the "Edit" button?
Re: After 244 Years, Encyclopaedia Britannica Stops the Presses
#10“Some people will feel sad about it and nostalgic about it. But we have a better tool now. The Web site is continuously updated, it’s much more expansive and it has multimedia.” The future is clearly http://www.britannica.com
The future is so clearly not britannica.com. That site doesn't even work without javascript, and where the heck is the "Edit" button?
Citable facts published by someone reputable are extremely important. Wikipedia is very much not that. britannica.com could very well be a citation for a wikipedia article but never the other way around.