French encyclopedia hurting
Anyone who knows the story of Britannica will find this a bit of dejavu. From The Independent.
The brave new world of instant enlightenment at the touch of a computer key has claimed a heavyweight victim. The 2008 edition of Quid, France’s favourite encyclopaedia, has been cancelled by its publisher for lack of interest. The annual sales of the 2,000-page tome, which reached more than 400,000 in the mid-1990s, collapsed to just over 100,000 last year.
The book’s publisher, Robert Laffont, says the whole concept of the print encyclopedia can no longer compete with the free information available on the internet. Quid, produced by a family team for the past 45 years, has suffered especially at the hands of the French-language version of Wikipedia, the do-it-yourself web encyclopaedia.
March 15th, 2008 16:26
Hey Andrew-
I’m the founder of a new website called Cutcaster (www.cutcaster.com) that is building out an online digital marketplace for video and image content. It can be more aptly described as a dynamic licensing exchange, kind of like Getty meets eBay. In any case, I’ve been checking out your blog and thought you might be interested in taking a look at what we’re developing.
Thanks in advance, and let me know if you have any questions!
John Griffin
www.cutcaster.com
www.cutcaster.blogspot.com