#Encarta Data
3 messages in this thread
Jack:
Just a small point of order: Grolier does not incorporate Colliers, which is a
much down-trodden but still kicking part of Macmillan. And no one competes
with Britannica on disc, because it isn't, Compton's is, which is owned by
Britannica but is a wholly different and distinct product. Which, by the way,
is for sale. Who was the guy with the razors? "I liked the encyclopedia so
much I bought the company!" Such a deal.
Best – Rich Bowers
Oops. The Groliers is organized so close to the Colliers I grew up with and
reads so similarly I made an unwarranted assumption. Still, the basics stand.
Multimedia? No contest–Encarta. Depth? Encarta and Comptons leave a lot to be
desired and seem basically intended for the middle school market. Groliers is a
grown-up encyclopedia.
Now if somebody would just license that great OED search engine…!
Second Encarta negative: while it gives a nice way to browse with its
time/subject line, you can't get to the encyclopedia through it when you find
what you're looking for!
Jack:
I think the greatest result of competition in this market is that we have a lot
of bright people all of a sudden taking a detailed and critical look at
encyclopedia products in a way that is totally unprecedented. How strange for
the publishers, who have lived in a very competitive but rather low-key (from a
publicity perspective) product category, to find themselves under the
magnifying glass (or zoom lens).
Best – Rich