Encyclopædia Britannica

Britannica was conceived, compiled, printed and published entirely in Edinburgh, and its first pages were published on December 10, 1768. The first edition was financed by the partnership of printer Colin Macfarquhar and engraver Andrew Bell, who paid the printer William Smellie £200 to compile it (Bell had made his name as an engraver for the Scots Magazine, where he met Smellie); it was issued in 100 weekly parts from 1768 to 1771, forming three volumes illustrated with 160 copperplate engravings.⁠[1][2][2][2][2][2][1][1]

Robert Betteridge, rare books curator at the National Library of Scotland, regards Britannica as one of the enduring achievements of the Scottish Enlightenment; the first edition emphasized two themes, modern science and Scottish identity, and included groundbreaking and controversial articles on anatomy and Scots law. Three full pages of anatomical illustrations that Bell produced for the midwifery article shocked King George III, who ordered the pages torn from every copy. Smellie opened the preface to the first edition by writing that “utility ought to be the principal intention of every publication.”⁠[1][1][1][1][2]

Later editions grew steadily: the second edition ran to 10 volumes (1777–1784) and the third to 18 volumes (1788–1797), and as its reputation grew the encyclopedia began to seek contributions from leading experts in their fields. After Macfarquhar died in 1793, Bell bought out his heirs and became Britannica’s sole owner until his death in 1809. Macfarquhar and Bell held the copyright of the first three editions, after which publication was taken over first by Archibald Constable and then by A & C Black; Britannica was edited and published in Edinburgh up to the 9th edition. The first eight editions, from 1768 to 1860, comprised 143 volumes in all.⁠[2][2][1][2][2][2]

In 1943 William Benton, who had worked for the University of Chicago in public relations and fundraising since 1937, bought Encyclopaedia Britannica from its then owner, Sears, Roebuck and Company, giving the University of Chicago a beneficiary interest in its profits; Benton died in 1975, and by the following year the royalties accumulated by the university amounted to $47.8 million. The same year, Benton asked Mortimer J. Adler and Robert Hutchins to edit a set of “great books” to be published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the 52-volume Great Books of the Western World was published in 1952.⁠[3][3][3][3][3]

By early January 1996, Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc. had announced that an investment group led by Jacob Safra would buy all of the company’s stock for an undisclosed amount. The seller was the William Benton Foundation, a nonprofit that held the company in accordance with Benton’s wishes and whose sole beneficiary was the University of Chicago. At the time the company offered its roughly 44 million words of encyclopedia content in forms including the 32-volume printed set, the Britannica CD disc and the Britannica Online website, also published reference works such as Great Books of the Western World, and owned the dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster; it was headquartered in Chicago.⁠[4][4][4][4][4][4]

In December 2005 the journal Nature published a comparison study finding that, across 42 matched entries, Wikipedia averaged four errors per article and Britannica three; the widely publicized result called into question Britannica’s presumed accuracy advantage. Britannica issued a lengthy rebuttal calling the study error-laden and “completely without merit.”⁠[5][5][6][6]

Company executives announced that Encyclopaedia Britannica would go out of print after 244 years and would focus primarily on its online encyclopedias and educational curriculum products for schools; the last print edition was the 32-volume 2010 edition, weighing 129 pounds and including new entries on global warming and the Human Genome Project, priced at $1,395 and frequently bought by embassies, libraries and research institutions. Of the 2010 edition, 8,000 sets had been sold and the remaining 4,000 were stored in a warehouse.⁠[6][6][6][6][6]

U.S. sales of the print set peaked in 1990, when 120,000 sets were sold; by 2012 print encyclopedias accounted for less than 1 percent of the company’s revenue, with about 85 percent coming from curriculum products in subjects such as math, science and English and 15 percent from website subscriptions. About half a million households paid a $70 annual fee for the online subscription, which gave access to all articles, videos, original documents and mobile apps.⁠[6][6][6]

Jorge Cauz, then the company’s president, said some people would feel sad about the change but that the website, continuously updated, more expansive and multimedia, was a better tool; he argued that compared with Wikipedia, Britannica’s competitive advantage lay in its prestigious sources, carefully edited entries and the trust attached to the brand, and that Britannica would be smaller and unable to cover every cartoon character or every celebrity’s love life, but would always be factually correct.⁠[6][6][6][6]

The Britannica Group announced the appointment of Jorge Cauz as chief executive officer, with all of its operations worldwide, including Merriam-Webster and Melingo, reporting to him. Cauz joined the company as a consultant in 1996, served as senior vice president of international operations and chief operating officer of Internet operations, and had previously led the company until 2017; during that time he directed the transformation of Britannica and Merriam-Webster into digital media destinations, expanded the company’s digital curriculum products and presided over the end of the print edition.⁠[7][7][7][7][7][7]

The Britannica Group appointed Jason Tuohey as editor-in-chief, responsible for supervising the editorial and media staff and the multiple information and media databases for lifelong and preK–16 learners. Tuohey was previously managing editor at Yahoo News and, before that, worked for nearly two decades at the Boston Globe, where he launched BostonGlobe.com.⁠[8][8][8]

The Britannica Group announced it had filed a copyright and trademark infringement lawsuit against the artificial intelligence company Perplexity, alleging that Perplexity had engaged in widespread, knowing use of Britannica’s human-verified content and historic brands, often verbatim, without Britannica’s consent or attribution. Chief executive Jorge Cauz said that Perplexity calls itself the “world’s first answer engine,” but the answers it gives consumers are often Britannica’s answers. The company said its users generate more than 200 million sessions a month.⁠[9][9][9][9][9]

The company’s Britannica Education unit launched Britannica Studio, an artificial-intelligence workspace for teachers that uses Britannica’s fact-checked knowledge base to generate classroom materials such as quizzes, leveled texts and vocabulary lists, with every output carrying linked sources; it had earlier introduced ASK Britannica, an AI research companion within the Britannica School and Britannica Academic platforms.⁠[10][10][10][10][10]

As of October 2026, the company’s website lists its brands as Britannica, Britannica Education, Merriam-Webster and Melingo. The Britannica brand offers continuously updated, fact-checked content at britannica.com, with a team of editors and contributors writing, updating and revising tens of thousands of articles each year; Britannica Education provides digital products such as Britannica School, Britannica ImageQuest, Britannica Academic and Britannica Library to schools, universities and public libraries, and its curriculum products reach 150 million students in more than 100 countries.⁠[11][12][12][13][13][13][13][13]

Encyclopædia Britannica: Official website: https://www.britannica.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[12]

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.: Official website: https://corporate.britannica.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[9]

Britannica Education: Official website: https://britannicaeducation.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[14]

Merriam-Webster: Official website: https://www.merriam-webster.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[15]

X: Public account: https://x.com/Britannica (opens in a new window)⁠[16][16]