I know many of you are interested in how Wikipedia's traditional
competitors are doing, especially the unusual event that new print
editions appear.
The Swedish encyclopedia, Nationalencyklopedin, was produced in 20
volumes in 1989-1996 and has since made many transformations as
CDROM, DVD, and online. The original 20 volumes contained 172,000
articles, which have expanded to 460,000 in the current online
edition, which is only open to paying subscribers.
One year ago, a new printed edition appeared, a compact 3 volumes
with only 64,000 short articles. These volumes have the same 3
columns per page, 25 cm tall, as the original 20 set. At the same
time, the website was revised so that 64,000 short articles (I
assume they are the same ones) were made available for free.
Yesterday, we learned of yet another printed edition, this time in
20 volumes, to be sold in collaboration with two newspapers Dagens
Nyheter and Expressen. It appears that these volumes are rather
thin, maybe 200 pages and set in only 2 columns. Although I don't
have any numbers, it seems that this could be the same 64,000
short articles.
The old print set of 20 big volumes + 3 supplements sells for 700
euro in plain binding or 1100 euro for leather spines (half-calf,
Halblederband). The 3 volumes sell for 190 euro. The new 20
volume compact edition sells for 8 euro/volume (including
shipping) with the first one free, for a total of 150 euro.
The two newspapers belong to the same publisher. Dagens Nyheter
is Sweden's largest morning subscription newspaper, delivering the
volumes with 14 day intervals directly to your home. Expressen is
Sweden's second largest evening newspaper, only sold in stores,
and you get the volume for an extra 8 euro when you buy your
newspaper. Expressen has earlier done this with DVD films and
some minor books, and so has its competitor Aftonbladet. Some
stores might offer a reduced price for the newspaper supplement to
customers who buy other products for more than a certain amount.
My interpretation is that printed encyclopedias and newspapers are
two industries in crisis that are trying to find each other.
Using a highly respected brand for a much smaller new product is a
strategy that has been tried before (e.g. Mercedes-Benz A-Class),
but I'm not convinced it makes any sense in the long run. People
might set their expectations too high and get disappointed. Old
arguments that the Swedish Wikipedia needs to become as good as
Nationalencyklopedin, suddenly got a lot more confused.
--
Lars Aronsson (lars(a)aronsson.se)
Aronsson Datateknik -
http://aronsson.se