Encyclopaedia Britannica ends print forever

[Sephire]

Encyclopedia Britannica ends print, goes digital

(Reuters) - 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 Tuesday 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 $1400. An online subscription costs around $70 per year and the company recently launched a set of apps ranging between $1.99 and $4.99 per month.

The company said it will keep selling print editions until the current stock of around 4000 sets ran out.

Source



I wish I have the money to buy the last edition. I grew up using the 1973 edition and its still in very good condition.

 

[Pray To Jesus]

If you buy the last of the last it will be worth $$$.

 

[Doppel]

I can't remember which set of encyclopedias I had growing up. I would buy this one, but not for $1400. It would only be a conversation piece, never really accessed anyway. This was always going to happen, I'm kind of surprised they lasted so long.

 

[Jeff7]

And now you could fit an entire set of those encyclopedias onto a single MicroSD card.

 

[endlessmike]

This kid will never finish his report on space now.

 

[Triumph]

I love hard cover books for a lot of things, but I really don't see the point of a full on encyclopedia set anymore.

 

[ultimatebob]

Will they still be doing "Year Books" for a few years to keep the 2010 edition up to date?

 

[lxskllr]

Fuck 'em. Encyclopedias are a waste of space. Great tomes of obsolete information.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

This kid will never finish his report on space now.

bravo

 

[purbeast0]

good, it's a fucking waste of paper and resources.

 

[FoBoT]

its about time. data belongs in a database, not a book

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Need to reprint one every few decades, just in case of EMP.

 

[OutHouse]

i grew up with a 1971 set. it was good for elementary and jr high research but in high school not so much. when i cleaned out my parents house i was on the fence on keeping the set or not. i just did not have any place for them so with a heavy heart put them in the trailer and then to the dump.

 

[CPA]

I remember reading about the moon in my set when I was kid. Couple days later, my 4th grade teacher asked if anyone knew how the moon "lit up". I was the only one who knew the answer. I was the shit for the rest of the day.

 

[SaDiZTiKStyLeZ]

Need to reprint one every few decades, just in case of EMP.

Now that there's not going to be any competition, Wikipedia will start printing their own encyclopedias of their entire site. In every language.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

How I am I supposed to beat someone to death with an encyclopedia now? Download an app and slap them with my iPad? That's ridiculous.

 

[Old Hippie]

My parents bught a set of these and the "Junior Editions" in tha late 50's for me.

They were just an incredible wealth of information at that time and included "Update Request" stickers that you could send to them and they would do the research.

I remember sending them one for the Binary system and they sent back a full report.

It's kinda sad but was inevitable.

 

[Newbian]

 

[Imp]

We had a set growing up from the 70s. They were great for making forts...

Helpful and useless at the same time for projects. I remember getting desperate and cutting a picture out of one encyclopedia for a project - pre-internet...

 

[vshah]

we had a 1998 set that was really useful in high school because online sources for documenting sources weren't readily available yet, whereas I could go grab any info out of Britannica and my teachers would accept it as a source for a paper.

 

[KeithP]

I am surprised they are killing the print edition completely. I would think if they just made a fixed limited run each year they would probably sell out.

-KeithP

 

[IronWing]

I never really liked Britannica. Encyclopedia Americana had a better WWII section and World Book had the cool human anatomy overlays.

 

[SirStev0]

I am surprised they are killing the print edition completely. I would think if they just made a fixed limited run each year they would probably sell out.

-KeithP

Me too. Especially since they are going to continue to update information. Honestly, can't be that hard to copy and paste their online articles into a word document and hit print.

Wonder if their model only works when printing large quanties and the numbers just don't work for a reasonably priced limited run.

Also, who cares. I have the internets.

 

[FeuerFrei]

That's too bad. Now our access to the knowledge therein totally hinges on the existence of hardware/batteries/discs, ISPs, power companies, etc.

There's something to be said for the tech-free printed page. I don't buy e-books.

The Britannica is one of the fringe publishers IMO. I was barely aware they exist.

 

[Connoisseur]

Just remember... it's pronounced En-cy-clo-pA-dia. Ahh British and their unnecessary silent vowels.