Encyclopaedia Britannica said it will stop publishing print editions after 244 years and will go digital.
Encyclopaedia Britannica president Jorge Cauz was quoted by the Agence France Presse as saying that the end of the print set is something they had foreseen for some time.
"It’s the latest step in our evolution from the print publisher we were, to the creator of digital learning products we are today," added Cauz.
The 32-volume print set, which used to sell at $1,395, had reportedly sold only 8,000 of the total 12,000 printed for 2010 edition.
Cauz, however, pointed out that this decision had nothing do with Wikipedia or Google.
The encyclopaedia’s first digital edition was offered to its LexisNexis users in 1981 and its first edition on the Internet appeared in 1994.
The peak year for the printed edition was said to be in 1990 when 120,000 sets were sold.
Cauz told the Associated Press that a printed encyclopaedia is obsolete the minute that it is printed.
"Whereas our online edition is updated continuously," said Cauz.
