![]() In reality, the rise of the PC and the digital age was the true threat to the encyclopedia giant. Many are quick to conclude that Wikipedia killed Britannica however Wikipedia wasn’t founded until 2001. By 1994 their print volume had dropped to 3,000 units and by 1996 the company was sold for a mere $135M. In 1990 Britannica was thriving with more than $650M in revenue and selling more than 100,000 volumes of their encyclopedia a year. Not only was an encyclopedia a very visible sign of education and wealth in a home, but also gave parents the comfort of supporting their children’s education by giving them a physical wealth of knowledge. ![]() The sales model focused on going door to door with the pitch of giving a family an information source in their living room. ![]() The sales force sold the multi-volume pack to households at a break even price and made money on the “yearbook”, their annual single volume full of updates. Encyclopedia Britannica’s entire business was built around print media, from mechanical tools and a release cadence that matched the production timeline of paperback books, to a direct sales force of more than 2,000 people at its peak.
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