The Encyclopædia Britannica (properly spelt with æ, the ae-ligature) is the oldest English-language general encyclopedia. Its articles are commonly considered accurate, reliable, and well-written.

A product of the Scottish enlightenment, it was originally published in Edinburgh by Adam and Charles Black beginning in the 18th century. Unlike the French Encyclopédie, Britannica was an extremely conservative publication. Later editions were usually dedicated to the reigning monarch. The publication moved from Scotland to London and became associated with The Times newspaper in the 1870s for its ninth and tenth editions. Horace Everett Hooper was publisher from 1897 to 1922. For the eleventh edition the publication became associated with the University of Cambridge, also in England. The trademark and publication rights were sold after the 11th edition to Sears Roebuck and it moved to Chicago, Illinois, United States. Sears Roebuck offered it as a gift to the University of Chicago in 1941. William Benton figured as publisher from 1943 to his death in 1973, followed by his widow Helen Hemingway Benton until her own death in 1974. In January 1996 it was purchased by billionaire Swiss financier Jacqui Safra.

Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. now owns a trademark on the word "Britannica". As of 2004, the most complete version of Encyclopædia Britannica contains about 120,000 articles, with 44 million words, and a comprehensive index, the first of its kind for a major encyclopedia. It is published in paper form (32 volumes containing 65,000 articles, list price US$1400), online (120,000 articles, brief summaries of articles can be viewed for free, and the full text is available for US$11.95 per month or US$69.95 per year for individual subscribers), and on CD-ROM (more than 80,000 articles) or DVD-ROM (more than 100,000 articles, US$50).

The current version of Britannica was written by over 4,000 contributors, including noted scholars such as Milton Friedman, Carl Sagan, and Michael DeBakey. Under the influence of the director of planning, Mortimer Adler, the 15th edition, first published in 1974 and frequently reissued since, was published not as one alphabetical sequence of volumes as previously but in three parts that covered topics in different degrees of depth: a one-volume Propædia that provides a structured hierarchy to all the information in the set, a 10-volume Micropædia which contains short articles, a 19-volume Macropædia for longer articles. A two-volume index was added in 1985. Thirty-five percent of the content of the encyclopedia has been re-written within the last two years.

Dale Hoiberg, a sinologist, is the publication's current editor-in-chief. Among his predecessors were Hugh Chisholm (1903–1913, 1920–1924), James Louis Garvin (1926–1932), Franklin Henry Hooper (1932–1938), Walter Yust (1938–1960), Harry S. Ashmore (1960–1963), Warren E. Preece (1964–1975), and Robert McHenry (1992–1997). Ted Pappas is the current executive editor. Earlier holders of that position were John V. Dodge (1950–1964) and Philip W. Goetz. Don Yannias, former CEO of the company when it was "hemorrhaging money", serves on Britannica's Board of Directors.

In the 1980s, Microsoft approached Britannica to collaborate on a CD-ROM encyclopedia. Britannica, feeling that they had a stranglehold on the market and showing strong profits (sales of the complete Britannica were priced between US$1,500 and US$2,200), turned Microsoft down. Britannica's senior management viewed their product as a luxury brand with an impeccable reputation handed down from generation to generation. They did not believe that a CD-ROM could adequately compete or supplement their business. In turn, Microsoft used content from Funk & Wagnalls Standard Encyclopedia to create what is now known as Encarta. Encarta became a staple software with every computer purchase and Britannica's market share plummeted tremendously. Britannica countered by offering a CD version of their product. The sales team at Britannica were infuriated. Clearly, a CD could not generate US$500 to US$600 in sales commmisions as the print version did. In a poorly orchestrated move, Britannica decided on charging $995 for customers looking to purchase only the CD and included it in the print version for free. Britannica hoped that including the CD would entice buyers to stay with the brand while keeping the sales force happy. It didn't work.

In 1994, Britannica tried again to save the brand and launched an online version with subscriptions for sale for US$2000. By 1996, the cost of the CD had dropped to US$200. Sales had plummeted to US$325 million - about half their 1990 levels (US$650 million). Over 55,000 hard copy versions were sold in 1994 vs 117,000 in 1990. By the end of 1996, Britannica was in serious trouble and was purchased by Jacqui Safra for a fraction of its book value.

However, even though loyalties have moved towards products like Encarta and after the advent of novel knowledge disseminating resources like Wikipedia, Britannica still commands the authority and respect ascribed to the "best encyclopedia."

Edition history

References

• Herman Kogan, The Great EB: The Story of the Encyclopedia Britannica (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958)
• H. Einbinder, The Myth of the Britannica (New York: Grove Press, 1964)

External links

• Official website for the current version of Encyclopædia Britannica (http://www.britannica.com/)
• Scanned version of Encyclopædia Britannica 1911 (http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/)
• Another scanned version of Encyclopædia Britannica 1911 (http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/)
• Slice of the 1911 (http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/13600) Encyclopædia Britannica, as public domain text on Project Gutenberg
• "Dusting off the Britannica" (http://www.businessweek.com/1997/42/b3549124.htm) article from Business Week (1997)
• One reader's catalogue of errors in the Encyclopædia Britannica (http://members.cox.net/kevin82/eberrors.htm)
• The Lies And Fallacies Of The Encyclopædia Britannica. How Powerful And Shameless Clerical Forces Castrated A Famous Work Of Reference (http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/joseph_mccabe/lies_of_britannica.html) by Joseph McCabe, c. 1947. Tract that claims to show systematic religious bias in the Britannica of the time.
• Vintage Britannica (http://www.britannica.com/original?content_id=1395) or "Evolving Knowledge" — excerpts on a single topic selected from various Britannica editions since 1768
• The history of the encylopaedia on The Scotsman's Heritage and Culture pages (http://heritage.scotsman.com/ingenuity.cfm?id=634942005&20050610140559)da:Encyclopædia Britannica

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