Databases- Public Antes Up for Britannica.com
Free-to-fee site reports brisk business from libraries and consumers
by Michael Rogers -- Library Journal, 2/1/2002
The movement from "free to fee" proved the kiss of death for many information-based web sites that now are fading memories, but Encyclopedia Britannica reports that it is doing brisk business five months after instituting a charge for its initially free Britannica.com site. Britannica said that not only is it enjoying "strong and steady sales of new subscriptions" but insists that converting to a fee-based site has helped it re-sign colleges and libraries "that had deserted its Britannica Online institutional site when the encyclopedia became available free. The move thus has been beneficial for both Britannica's consumer and institutional Internet business."
Britannica's director of corporate communications, Tom Panelas, explained to LJ that the company had two web elements: Britannica.com, a free site for consumers, and Britannica Online, a subscription site for libraries, colleges, and research facilities. After paying for access to Britannica Online, however, many institutions "not surprisingly" dropped their subscriptions and began using the free consumer sight. "Once again charging for the consumer product, making the full database no longer free," Panelas said, "created an incentive for institutions that had stopped subscribing to come back."
Panelas reports that despite the institution of the fee in July 2001, the consumer base is roughly 40,000 subscribers.
