Print editions to be stopped by Encyclopaedia Britannica

Updated on: Thursday, March 15, 2012

Encyclopaedia Britannica is stopping its famed 32-volume print edition thereby Bringing the curtains down on a 244-year-old legacy.

Only the digital versions of Encyclopaedia Britannica would be available once the existing inventory of print editions is exhausted. The Book is a popular reference material worldwide and can be found at almost all the libraries and institutions. The growing prominence of online and digital content became more evident with this announcement by US-based Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc.

Encyclopaedia Britannica said in a blog on Tuesday, “Today, we've announced that we will discontinue the 32-volume printed edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica when our current inventory is gone... in a larger sense this is just another historical data point in the evolution of human knowledge.”

The first print edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica which was the brainchild of three scotsmen came out way back in 1768. The prized publication comes every two years and the last print edition came in 2010.

Encyclopaedia Britannica's President Jorge Cauz said that its digital database is much larger to fit into the print edition and hence the decision to stop the print edition had to be taken.He said in another blog that the data is upto date as it can be revised within minutes whenever they need to. It is in fact revised many times in a day to keep it up to date.

The company which earlier focused on door-to-door sales is now generating major revenue through online sales. Having remained a prominent print publisher for over a century it came out with the first digital encyclopedia in 1981. Eight years later, the multimedia CD hit the stands and 1994, the group launched the first encyclopedia on the Internet.

The company said, “With the end of the Britannica print set, we complete the transition from print to digital,” 

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