Serious academic institutions already have alternatives to Britannica though - educational databases like Lexis-Nexis, LION, Emerald etc. And unlike Britannica, these contain long-text of academic essays, journals, original news articles from Time, Newsweek etc.

So who is Britannica for, then? For light homework or essays, you've got Wikipedia and the sources it draws from. For in-depth papers and theses, you've got the databases listed above.

It's the K-Mart probem all over again - not as cheap as Wal-mart, not as upscale as Target.