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ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITTANICA OUTLIVES COMPETITOR ENCARTA On a related note, this article highlights the evolution of the classic encyclopedia. It's fate may well foretell the evolution of numismatic books. -Editor Based on content licensed from Funk & Wagnalls and Collier’s Encyclopedia, in the 1990s Microsoft (MSFT) used a sub-$100 Encarta CD-ROM to wipe out most of the dead tree encyclopedias.As Blown to Bits recounts, The CD-ROM came from nowhere and destroyed the printed encyclopedia business. Whereas Britannica sells for $1,500 to $2,200 per set (depending on the quality of the binding), CD-ROM encyclopedias, such as Encarta, Grolier, and Compton, list for $50 to $70. But hardly anybody pays even that: the vast majority of copies are given away to promote the sale of computers and peripherals. With a marginal manufacturing cost of $1.50 per copy, the CD-ROM as freebie makes good economic sense. The marginal cost of Britannica, in contrast, is about $250 for production plus about $500 to $600 for the salesperson’s commission. Tuesday Microsoft announced that it’s pulling the plug on both the CD-ROM and the online version of Encarta. The crowd-sourced Wikipedia is credited with its demise. At one level, Clay Christensen has yet another example for his disruptive innovation commoditization story — in which a commoditized technology itself gets commoditized. We saw this with minicomputers wiped out by PCs and someday PCs wiped out by mobile phones. But I also find it interesting that Britannica (at least in its online version) will outlive Encarta. While Britannica is in its own life-and-death struggle with Wikipedia, it appears (at least in the short run) that its emphasis on quality is being recognized. This means we'll at least have Brittanica (paid), the Columbia Encyclopedia (available free on Dictionary.com) and Wikipedia. Given both Wikipedia’s severe limitations as well as the inherent risk of a single source of information for the world, as a member of a free society I hope the market doesn’t collapse any further. To read the complete article, see: Britannica Has the Last Laugh as Microsoft Cancels Online Encyclopedia (seekingalpha.com/article/128876-britannica-has-the -last-laugh-as-microsoft-cancels-online-encyclopedia?source=email) Wayne Homren, Editor The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org. To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum All Rights Reserved. NBS Home Page Contact the NBS webmaster 
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