[Wikipedia-l] Swedish encyclopedia in new compact print edition

[Lars Aronsson]

I know many of you are interested in how Wikipedia's traditional 
competitors are doing, especially the unusual event that new print 
editions appear.

The Swedish encyclopedia, Nationalencyklopedin, was produced in 20 
volumes in 1989-1996 and has since made many transformations as 
CDROM, DVD, and online.  The original 20 volumes contained 172,000 
articles, which have expanded to 460,000 in the current online 
edition, which is only open to paying subscribers.

One year ago, a new printed edition appeared, a compact 3 volumes 
with only 64,000 short articles.  These volumes have the same 3 
columns per page, 25 cm tall, as the original 20 set. At the same 
time, the website was revised so that 64,000 short articles (I 
assume they are the same ones) were made available for free.

Yesterday, we learned of yet another printed edition, this time in 
20 volumes, to be sold in collaboration with two newspapers Dagens 
Nyheter and Expressen.  It appears that these volumes are rather 
thin, maybe 200 pages and set in only 2 columns. Although I don't 
have any numbers, it seems that this could be the same 64,000 
short articles.

The old print set of 20 big volumes + 3 supplements sells for 700 
euro in plain binding or 1100 euro for leather spines (half-calf, 
Halblederband).  The 3 volumes sell for 190 euro.  The new 20 
volume compact edition sells for 8 euro/volume (including 
shipping) with the first one free, for a total of 150 euro.

The two newspapers belong to the same publisher.  Dagens Nyheter 
is Sweden's largest morning subscription newspaper, delivering the 
volumes with 14 day intervals directly to your home.  Expressen is 
Sweden's second largest evening newspaper, only sold in stores, 
and you get the volume for an extra 8 euro when you buy your 
newspaper.  Expressen has earlier done this with DVD films and 
some minor books, and so has its competitor Aftonbladet.  Some 
stores might offer a reduced price for the newspaper supplement to 
customers who buy other products for more than a certain amount.

My interpretation is that printed encyclopedias and newspapers are 
two industries in crisis that are trying to find each other.  
Using a highly respected brand for a much smaller new product is a 
strategy that has been tried before (e.g. Mercedes-Benz A-Class), 
but I'm not convinced it makes any sense in the long run.  People 
might set their expectations too high and get disappointed.  Old 
arguments that the Swedish Wikipedia needs to become as good as 
Nationalencyklopedin, suddenly got a lot more confused.


-- 
  Lars Aronsson (lars at aronsson.se)
  Aronsson Datateknik - http://aronsson.se