Encyclopaedia Britannica is to stop publishing print editions of its flagship encyclopaedia for the first time since the sets were originally published more than 200 years ago.
The book-form of Encyclopaedia Britannica has been in print since it was first published in Edinburgh in 1768. It will stop being available when the current stock runs out, the company says. The company will continue to offer digital versions.
It said the end of the printed, 32-volume set had been foreseen for some time.
“This has nothing to do with Wikipedia or Google,” Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc president Jorge Cauz said. “This has to do with the fact that now Britannica sells its digital products to a large number of people.” The top year for the printed encyclopaedia was 1990, when 120,000 sets were sold but that fell to 40,000 just six years later in 1996. – (AP)