No More Print OED?

Third Edition of OED Unlikely to Appear in Print Format
Publishers confirm that print dictionary market is disappearing so third
edition is unlikely
Press Association
Guardian.co.uk
Sunday 29 August 2010 21.14 BST

Publishers of the Oxford English Dictionary have confirmed that the third edition may never appear in print. A team of 80 lexicographers began working on it following the publication of the second edition in 1989. It is 28% finished. In comments to a Sunday newspaper, Nigel Portwood, chief executive of Oxford University Press, which owns the dictionary, said: "The print dictionary market is just disappearing. It is falling away by tens of percent a year." Asked if he thought the third edition would
appear in printed format, he said: "I don't think so." However, an OUP spokeswoman said no decision had been made.

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Oxford English Dictionary 'will not be printed again'
The next edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, the world's most definitive work on the language, will never be printed because of the impact of the internet on book sales.
By Alastair Jamieson
Published: 3:01PM BST 29 Aug 2010
Telegraph

The most recent OED has existed online for more than a decade, where it receives two million hits a month from subscribers who pay an annual fee of L240.
...

The next full edition is still estimated to be more than a decade away from completion; only 28 per cent has been finished to date.

OUP said it would continue to print the more familiar Oxford Dictionary of English, the single-volume version sold in bookshops and which contains more contemporary entries such as vuvuzela, the plastic trumpet encountered in the 2010 football World Cup.

Mr Portwood said printed dictionaries had a shelf life of about another 30 years, with the pace of change increased by the popularity of e-books and devices such as the Apple iPad and Amazon's Kindle.

Simon Winchester, author of 'The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary', said the switch towards online formats was "prescient".

He said: "Until six months ago I was clinging to the idea that printed books would likely last for ever. Since the arrival of the iPad I am now wholly convinced otherwise.

"The printed book is about to vanish at extraordinary speed.

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