Looking for Cash and Answers, Britannica Restructures
Steven Zeitchik -- Publishers Weekly, 5/21/2001
As they continue to look for ways to extract revenue from their vast reference materials, Britannica.com and Encyclopaedia Britannica have been brought closer together under a new CEO and a decision to do more cross-packaging. "We're separate corporate entities on paper, but we will operate essentially as one company," said spokesperson Tom Panelas. "We will have one org chart and everyone will report to Ilan," he added, referring to Ilan Yeshua, who leaves his position at Britannica Israel to head the newly formed unit. Britannica.com was formerly headed by Don Yannias, who has left the company but will remain on the board. EB has been without a CEO for more than a year.
The approximately 150 employees remaining at Britannica.com after the company's recent round of layoffs will work closely with EB employees and staff from both the print and electronic sides will continue to work on a common database. The new structure, Panelas said, will result in a scaling back of feature content and leave the company to focus more heavily on reference.
Although it has many attractive properties—including a lustrous brand and an enviable database—Britannica.com has struggled to find its way on the Web since the mid '90s. The site started as an all-you-can-eat paid service, then went to a free-content model in 1999. Its new site will blend the two—it will operate as a tiered system. Visitors will be able to view ad-supported content for free or pay for premium content. Britannica has yet to decide where to draw that line.
"There was a time when everyone thought all information on the Web was the same, and that it all had to be free," Panelas said. "But there's a growing awareness that not all information is the same, that good information is valuable and worth paying for."
The company has also begun dabbling in site licenses for corporations and schools. The latest announcement appears to indicate a move into the CD-ROM market, with Panelas citing k–12 educational packages that combine print and electronic materials as part of the new push.
