Encyclopedia Britannica Ends Print Edition, Goes Digital

Times are changing, indeed.

For the first time in 244 years, the Encyclopedia Britannica will cease to print as a book set. When current stock runs out, the product will be available in digital form only, it was announced by the company Wednesday.

Encyclopedia Britannica was originally published in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1768 and has been in print continuously ever since.

The company began exploring digital publishing in the 1970s and created the first digital version of the Britannica for LexisNexis users in 1981.

As Britannica expanded and diversified its Internet reference services in the years since, it also moved beyond reference and into the $10-billion school curriculum and digital-learning markets, developing instructional programs and e-books in math, science, and the humanities now used in classrooms around the world.

The online versions serve more than 100 million people worldwide, and a new app that delivers the whole encyclopedia to the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch was recently launched.

To mark the retirement of the print set, the entire contents of the www.britannica.com Web site will be available free for one week beginning March 14, 2012. More information is available at the Britannica blog: www.britannica.com/blogs.