“Falling away by tens per cent a year,” the print dictionary market “is just disappearing.” That’s what Oxford University Press’ CEO Nigel Portwood says. And that’s exactly why the third edition of the Oxford English Dictionary may be online only.
While the company will not stop printing smaller dictionaries yet—which are still fairly popular—the 20-volume, $1150 dictionary will most surely die, unless “there is sufficient demand at the time of publication.”
Let’s hope there’s none because, no matter how you feel about books, this is very good news. 132 pounds of paper—which is what the second editions weighs—mean a lot of production resources for something that offers an inferior experience compared to the ease of use, speed, and convenience of the electronic version. [SMH via Obsolete]
