2008/5/20 David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com:
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080516/0916211136.shtml
"HMS Britannic Optimistic About Deck-Chair Re-Arrangement"
(I've also posted a comment. Precis: we "compete" by owning a niche we weren't ever aiming for, amongst readers who haven't cracked open a paper encyclopedia since high school.)
Demographics are against your claim. Initially most wikipedians would have probably viewed encarta as the gold standard if anything. The current generation? Well wikipedia featured articles are probably their gold standard rather than anything from a past encyclopedia.