The Encyclopaedia Britannica, that iconic stalwart of world knowledge has finally called it quits for its printed version. The information manuals, as they may have been but never referred to, adorned every middle to upper class home where families bought them to create a picture of prestige and learnedness.
But the Britannica has been in trouble for a long time now. The company thrived on monopolising information, something the Internet cam and did away with and the decline has been epic. Only some 20 years ago, the company had revenues upwards of $650 million but was forced to declare bankruptcy some 6 short years later because of an ill calculated move that saw the company decline an advance from Microsoft to include the encyclopaedia in its Windows OS.
The company declined and Microsoft went ahead to create a serve a lesser value Encarta. This was the deathblow dealt to Britannica because every family now could own both a cool computer and an encyclopaedia set in one. The results were devastating to the company.
Four years after filling for bankruptcy, Wikipedia happened and that was the end. This history shows that the move announced by the company was expected and in any ways long coming. Many things could be said about what Britannica could have done right or better but the bottom line is, we shall all miss those leather bound books that adorned our parent’s shelves and which were read no more than once a year.
