Newsgroups: alt.cd-rom Path: cdrom.com!barrnet.net!sgiblab!darwin.sura.net!howland.reston.ans.net!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!newsrelay.iastate.edu!hobbes.physics.uiowa.edu!news.uiowa.edu!news.weeg.uiowa.edu!tclark From: tclark@umaxc.weeg.uiowa.edu (Terry Clark) Subject: Re: Interesting news on Britannica Message-ID: <1994Feb24.023702.1633@news.weeg.uiowa.edu> Sender: tclark@news.weeg.uiowa.edu (Terry Clark) Organization: University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA References: <2kg3qs$i53@gazette.wv.tek.com> Date: Thu, 24 Feb 1994 02:37:02 GMT Lines: 35 From article <2kg3qs$i53@gazette.wv.tek.com>, by michadon@pogo.wv.tek.com (Michael J Donovan): > In article , cliu@ucs.indiana.edu (Changhsu P. Liu) writes: >> From E-d-u-p-a-g-e 02/22/94 >> >> A BIGGER MISTAKE. Because the venerable 200-year-old Encyclopedia >> Britannica shunned multimedia technology, its profits have dried up and it >> is being hurt badly in the marketplace by CD ROM competitors Compton's, >> Grolier's and Encarta. (Forbes, 2/28/94 p.42). >> Peter Liu >> cliu@ucs.indiana.edu > > A few years ago I talked briefly with Britannica representitives at the Wescon electronics show in San Francisco. They were very arrogant and totally unconcerned about any competition, electronic or otherwise. I thought that was sort of strange and also wondered what they were doing with a booth at an electronics show! > > But they were actually fairly hostile to the idea of putting their encyclopedia on CDs, which I could almost understand given the compromises involved in presenting the non-text portions. When I mentioned the possibility of including an index or cross-reference on CD along with the books, they stated "we will never produce this information on disk." So, maybe their commission structure does explain the company's decisions; it will be interesting to see if they eventually work things out. > > Mike Donovan > michadonOB@pogo.wv.tek.com My experience has been the same everytime I have mentioned this to a Britanica rep. I agree there are compromises but their head in the sand (or clouds) attitude has left them in the dust and I'm sure they will finally see the error of their ways. The one advantage (for the consumer) of them falling behind is that to enter the market now they must be very aggressive on pricing if they want to get their market share back. Admittedly their name will carry a lot of weight but, with Grolliers offering 33,000 article plus lots of media stuff and selling for $100, you can't price a Britannica too high and have any move, no matter what the name is on the package. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Terry Clark tclark@uiowa.edu