Encylopaedia Britannica Kisses Salesmen Good-bye

Encyclopaedia Britannica has announced plans to disband its door-to-door sales force in the UK, owing to the success of its CD-ROM operation over the traditional paper-based encyclopedia.

According to company officials, the economics of the situation are simple — employing sales staff to tromp round people’s doorsteps to promote and get customers to spend as much as UKP3,000 (US$5,000) on a 32-volume set of encyclopaedias, or UKP895 ($1,500) on a condensed set, is becoming unpopular when people can spend around UKP500 ($800) on a PC and then buy a CD-ROM edition for just UKP125 ($200).

Even more interesting is the claim that Britannica’s recently launched Web site (Britannica Online) is a success at UKP7.99 ($13) a month, where the same information as on the CD-ROM and paper editions is available on a pay-as-you-go monthly basis.

The company claims that many of its Britannica Online users have signed up as a result of accessing the site on the current seven-day free trial available on the Web site at http://www.eb.com.

According to Tim Pethick, the company’s general manager for English language products, "In-home selling served us very well for many years, but today our customers want to buy in other ways. The revenues generated from in-homes sales efforts no longer justify the costs," he said.

According to company officials, the in-home selling program has been winding down over the past year or so. Just 15 months ago, the company employed 225 mobile sales staff. Today, that figure has fallen to 70 staff, most of whom are part-time. These staff will be laid off or offered transfers in April of this year.

Because of the change in selling, Britannica now plans to start advertising its CD-ROM and Internet edition. The CD-ROM’s appeal is near universal, especially since it includes many more words than the printed edition.

Despite the changes, Britannica plans to continue publishing its printed encyclopaedias — the company expects to sell around 4,000 copies of the books this year in the UK alone, with worldwide sales expected to be around the 25,000 mark. Printed book sales will be made in the future on a direct-sale basis, either by phone or by mail order.

(Contact: Encylopaedia Britannica UK +44-181-770-7766; Fax +44-181-642-9090)