The Encyclopedia Britannica will end the publication of their print and digital versions continue available online.
The flagship, 32-volume print edition, available every two years, sold for $ 1400. It cost online subscription of about $ 70 per year and the company recently launched a set of applications ranging between $ 1.99 and $ 4.99 per month.
The company said it will continue to sell print editions until the current population of about 4000 games are over.
It is the last movement of the Encyclopedia Britannica has to expand its Internet referral services and further away educational products. First, flirted with digital publishing in the 1970s, published a version for computers in 1981 to LexisNexis subscribers, and Internet for the first time in 1994.
"The printed edition became more difficult to maintain and was not the best physical element to provide the quality of our database and the quality of our publisher," said Jorge Cauz, president of the Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., told Reuters.
However, although the publishing industry has created more digital products, which has struggled with financial losses, and Cauz admitted to a "long path to profitability" for many publishers.
"Britannica was one of the first companies to really feel the impact of technology, perhaps 20 years ago, and we have adapted to it, although it is very difficult sometimes," he said.
While the Encyclopedia Britannica has continued to function, it expects that "many commercial publishers will not survive - and any content development company will have to be thinking about how they will fill the void."
As to whether the printed editions of the books will be viable products in the future, predicted Cauz, "print can not disappear completely from the market, but I think it will be increasingly important. Many publications will never have an analogue printing and will only print in digital format. "
With its academic reputation, reliable, Britannica was not affected by the popularity of Wikipedia free website.
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