Today, Encyclopaedia Britannica announced it will resume printing of its world-renowned 32-volume encyclopedia in the fall of this year -- the first published revision since 1998.

Three years ago, Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc. launched a full-scale assault on the Internet. Determined to regain its lead in an age gone digital, the venerable Chicago-based company (which incidentally is older than the United States of America) poured its resources into various Web efforts. By the fall of 1999, Encyclopaedia Britannica created a free Britannica Web site to complement its online encyclopedia, which was first introduced in 1994. And, with pseudo-intellectual entreprenuers and day-trading VCs deeming content aggregators in fashion at the time, the company turned to aggregating the content as opposed to creating it. Consequently, in lieu of its stoic publishing business, the company poured more time and money into an online directory service that was later dubbed "eBLAST." But even after pumping tens of millions of dollars into its online efforts, Encyclopaedia Britannica faced difficulties warding off the onslaught of the computer-savvy -- new competitors like Microsoft sales reps who were armed with their $50 Encarta CD-ROMs. The site, itself, encountered technical problems as well as the scrutiny of critics who were eager to denounce the company's efforts. And eBLAST has since been discontinued. Today, Encyclopaedia Britannica announced it will resume printing of its world-renowned 32-volume encyclopedia in the fall of this year -- the first published revision since 1998.