Online push spells d-day for printed dictionaries

Australia's Macquarie Dictionary may follow the Oxford English Dictionary in moving to an online publishing model as the internet cuts into reference publishing.

The 60 kilogram OED tome of authority is being used more online, leading its publisher, Oxford University Press to consider changing the medium which it is published.

A statement from the publisher said that: "At present we are experiencing increasing demand for the online product. However, a print version will certainly be considered if there is sufficient demand at the time of publication."

In an interview, Nigel Portwood, chief executive of Oxford University Press expressed concern over the decline in printed dictionaries. “The print dictionary market is just disappearing. It is falling away by tens of per cent a year," he said.

Susan Butler, publisher and editor of Australia’s Macquarie Dictionary, told Print21 that the title’s sales have decreased by around one third since the advent of digital publishing. She did not rule out the possibility of it also moving to an online-only mode.

“I don’t see that day as tomorrow, but possibly the day after,” she said. “All book publishing is gradually moving towards some kind of digital form, whether it is via an e-reader or internet delivery.”

Butler does not necessarily see this as a bad thing. “A dictionary online has possibilities that are far wider than can be encompassed in the printed book,” she said.

“There is an immediate relaxation on the constraints of print, which had been becoming tighter as paper gradually increased in cost.”

Yet, the thought of the dictionary ceasing to exist on paper all together is too strong a call, Butler added. “There will always be a place for the most prestigious form of the dictionary as a book,” she said.

“As a record of the language, it is much more visible in this form. The computer is almost too direct – it takes you to exactly where you wanted to go – there is less serendipity and less browse-ability.”