This is heartbreaking news to those of us nostalgic for the pre-Wikipedia era, and likely meaningless to the average high school student. But it shouldn’t be surprising. The book sets may be what most people think of when they hear the company name, but sales of the print edition account for less than 1% of Britannica’s sales. Digital is much more profitable for the company these days.

That means the 2010 encyclopedia set will be the final print edition. And it can be yours for just $1,395!

Alternately, an annual subscription to Britannica Online costs just 70 bucks, and you’ll have money left over for a trip to Cancun. Nostalgia solved.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Rushkoff explains in his Arthur magazine column why he chose to leave his publisher behind:

Because it would make my book twice as expensive for you, half as profitable for me, less purposefully written, and unavailable until about two years from now. In short, the traditional publishing system is nearly dead. And publishing a book under its rules can mean the death of ideas within it, as well. Until it utterly reworks its method, gets rid of a majority of its corporate dead weight, releases its publishing houses from the conglomerates that own them, and embraces direct selling models, the publishing industry will remain rather useless to readers and writers alike.

Rushkoff’s new book, “Program or be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age” will be released by the small, independent publisher OR Books on November 1st. It will only be available for sale on the OR Books website.

Rushkoff remains optimistic about the future of publishing. Read his full column here.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.