“It Has Decided Not To Print What Would Be The 2012 Edition”

An image of glorious ruins from the 1911 "Encyclopaedia Britannica" edition.

I actually didn’t realize the Encyclopaedia Britannica was still publishing a print version, but that anachronism is no more. From Computerworld:

After 244 years, the Encyclopaedia Britannica will cease publishing its flagship encyclopedia and concentrate on its digital offerings.

“We’d like to think our tradition is not to print, but to bring scholarly knowledge to the people,” said Jorge Cauz, president of Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Britannica has printed the encyclopedia, which now runs to 32 volumes in length, since 1768. The 2010 edition was the last edition the company published. It has decided not to print what would be the 2012 edition, which would have been out by the end of the year. The company has about 4,000 sets of the 2010 edition still available for sale. Overall about 2 million sets have been printed through the entire run of the encyclopedia.

Britannica’s move to stop printing encyclopedias is a telling moment in this point in history, when print is being superseded by websites and network-connected applications.”

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Richard Feynman in 1959: “Why can’t we write the entire 24 volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica on the head of a pin?”