Encyclopædia Britannica Inc.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. is the company best known for publishing the
Encyclopædia Britannica, the world's oldest continuously-published
encyclopedia. The company was founded in
Edinburgh in the 18th century, in the atmosphere of the
Scottish Enlightenment. A printer,
Colin Macfarquhar, and an engraver,
Andrew Bell, formed a partnership to create a new book that would embody the new spirit of scholarship.
William Smellie was engaged to edit the original three-volume work, published one volume at a time beginning in 1768.
As the
Encyclopædia Britannica's reputation grew throughout its subsequent volumes, the company moved its principal operations to America. This had happened by the time the (thoroughly revised) fourteenth edition of the
Britannica had been published in 1929. By the mid-1930s the company headquarters had moved to Chicago, and several editorial changes had taken place. The editorial staff was now no longer disbanded after the completion of a new edition, but kept on as a permanent editorial department. This was done for the sake of keeping pace with the rapid increase in knowledge at the time.
The
trademark and publication rights were sold after the 11th edition to
Sears Roebuck and it moved to
Chicago,
Illinois,
United States. Starting in 1936 a new printing of the encyclopedia was published each year, incorporating the latest changes and updates. In 1938, the first edition of the
Britannica Book of the Year appeared. This yearbook is still published today.
Sears Roebuck offered it as a gift to the
University of Chicago in
1941. Britannica Inc. extended its publishing ventures by purchasing
Compton's Encyclopedia and G. & C. Merriam in the
1940s. In 1952 Britannica published the landmark set
Great Books of the Western World, a 54-volume set of the "great books" of Western culture.
William Benton figured as publisher from
1943 to his death in
1973, followed by his widow
Helen Hemingway Benton until her own death in
1974. In January
1996 it was purchased by billionaire Swiss financier
Jacqui Safra.
The company was one of the first to offer encyclopedia content online (in association with
LexisNexis in the
1980s), and currently publishes in several mediums, including DVD and through its website. It has several international projects to develop educational materials in
Japan,
Korea,
China,
Taiwan,
Italy,
France,
Spain,
Latin America,
Turkey,
Hungary, and
Poland.
Under Safra's ownership the company has experienced some financial woes with freelance contributors waiting up to six months for checks and staff going years without raises, according to a report in the
New York Post. Cost-cutting measures have included mandates to use free photos. Britannica in
December 2002 told employees it would raise the contribution paid into their
401(k) accounts, then eliminated them entirely. A company spokesperson said, "We've had some cost reductions and belt-tightening but we're not going into details… We're a privately held company."
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Company website
