I’m excited to begin using my year-long free subscription to Britannica’s Online Encyclopedia. They’ve recently launched a digital presence aimed at drawing people into their content. By using their blog, widgets, free subscriptions, updates via Twitter, & soliciting contributor feedback, they are seeking out people who are actively engaged in reading & publishing online content.
Britannica is giving you many options for choosing, aggregating, displaying, & consuming their content. This flexibility allows them to display their brand to a wide audience. Online publishers looking to add valuable & trusted content to their site will benefit from the instant recognition of Britannica.
It has been a long time since I have used actual books to do research (not counting the standard text books in high school & college). I can vividly picture slaving over World Book & Britannica during the mid 80s to early 90s; this was one of the few ways to get accurate information in bulk about a great many things. From my late college years until now, though, I have relied almost exclusively on getting the information I seek online. Unfortunately for libraries & encyclopedias, so does just about everyone else in the world.
Companies like Britannica & Sports Illustrated are starting to understand that simply pushing their content to people the same way they did 20 years ago doesn’t cut it. They have both been somewhat irrelevant in terms of perceived worth. I haven’t subscribed to SI in over 10 years; I get ESPN the Magazine instead. Those who have read both will know why. Similarly, I visit ESPN.com more frequently & for longer periods of time than SI.com. I even pay for an ESPN Insider subscription; for $4 a month I get the magazine & access to content I find interesting or insightful.
Recently, SI has literally opened up its vault. You can now access any article, story, etc. from any issue, ever. Do you know how many sports blogs there are? Lots of opinion, but coming up with something truly unique on a regular basis is difficult. Sports fans love nostalgia; smart publishers will take advantage of this. SI.com will benefit from an increasingly engaging web presence.
One brand, Britannica, I had completely forgotten about. The other, Sports Illustrated, had become a commodity. I will now incorporate them into my regular media production & consumption routines. Once antiquated brands have now given themselves a chance to re-engage a lost audience while, more importantly, appealing to new ones.
Interesting post. I can’t imagine any ‘kids today’ cracking open an encyclopedia.
I think part of the issues with making everything free, though, is copyright. As a freelancer, I pay close attention to my contracts so a publisher can’t just make everything free everywhere without paying me an additional fee. If they’re selling advertising around my work, then I should get paid, too (this is the same argument as the Hollywood writer’s strike, if you remember).
Now, I give away plenty of free content via my blogs, and it’s bringing me book readers and eventually money from book sales. But I protect the copyright of what I do for magazines so they’re not making more money off my work without me seeing a share of it. It’s the only way I can keep my business going.
I remember pouring over encyclopedias too! Thanks for calling attention to Britannica, Brian. I think you’re right that many sources are compelled to offer free content, which raises a lot of questions about managing intellectual property. Appealing to new audiences is great, but where’s the profit? By the way, the Britannica blog is filled with interesting ideas and perspectives.
That’s a good question. While I am enjoying access to a plethora of good (& free) content, I do not envision paying for a subscription after my 1-year trial is complete. Price would be a motivator; so if it was fairly cheap (say $25 & under for the year) I would consider it. I’m sure there are people that will & this might be a way for them to identify those hidden niches.
It will be interesting to see what they do & would make the marketing nerd in me very happy to see them implement an integrated ad campaign. So far I see them using Twitter & email, but none of the other online basics. “Online encyclopedia” on Google yields zero paid listings; great natural rank though.