Last but not least: Brockhaus' physical death and digital resurrection

 
After more than 200 years and 21 editions, the internet and Wikipedia have achieved something that neither Napoleonic devastation, unification wars, the Great Depression nor two world wars could: The German Brockhaus, a source of reliable knowledge and a template for countless other encyclopaedias, has stopped publishing its standard work in book form. However, the Brockhaus lives on: on April 15, 2008, the publishing house Bibliographisches Institut & F.A. Brockhaus AG will continue to publish the encyclopedia as a free online encyclopedia. Not only will the publication be changed from primarily physical to primarily digital, but the business model will also be changed from buyer-financed to advertising-financed. With this historically significant change, the traditional publishing house is reacting to the business development of printed classic encyclopaedias, as stated in the communiqué. In 2007, sales targets were missed, particularly in the area of general encyclopedias, just two years after the publisher published its 30-volume 21st edition. In addition, market analyses had shown that customers would primarily look up factual information online in future. As early as 2007, the Brockhaus editorial team in Leipzig was therefore transformed into a purely online editorial team. The editor-in-chief of Brockhaus Online is the journalist Sigrun Albert.
The fact that the future of the expensive book encyclopaedia did not bode well was evident after the direct comparison of Wikipedia and Brockhaus by the news magazine Stern last year. Wikipedia performed better in terms of quality - who would pay for Brockhaus? In its move to become an online portal, Brockhaus is also setting itself apart from the encyclopaedias written by the public. "With Brockhaus Online, we are now countering the increasingly confusing flood of information from the Internet with a knowledge portal that stands for relevance, accuracy and security," says the communiqué. The Brockhaus will therefore not only live on as the digital spirit of its physical ancestors, the idea of a precise description of the world will also live on. The encyclopaedists will thank him for it.