News Article #1

Itzkoff, David. "Plans for Print-Free Oxford Dictionary Aren’t Fully Defined." The New York Times. 30 Aug. 2010. Web. 30 Aug. 2010.


In the article published by The New York Times, they are talking about the plans for a third edition of the Oxford Dictionary and the possibility of the dictionary being published over the internet. The first two editions of the dictionary, which were published in 1928 and 1989 respectively, were published in paper format. The chief executive of the Oxford University Press said in an interview with The Sunday Times of London that, “the market for print dictionaries is just disappearing”(Itzkoff). In the article they didn’t say that they would for sure be publishing the third edition of the Oxford Dictionary on the internet or not, but it seems that they are leaning towards that decision based on the lack of interest in the paper or book editions that are being sold. There is a long time before the decision has to be made because according to the article, it is going to be more than a decade before the third edition will be published. There are eighty lexicographers currently working on the edition, they are nearly twenty-eight percent complete, but they have yet to set a completion date. So Oxford has a long time before they have to make the crucial decision, and drift away from the norm.

I think that it would be good for the Oxford Dictionary to be published in a web type format. This would make it a lot easier for them to reach out to certain customers, who just aren’t into sitting down looking through a dictionary to find the word or words that they are search for. With the development of cells phones that get online, and the many types of other deceives that can go online, I think that it would be best if Oxford published their third edition with online capabilities. Many of my friends, which are mostly college students, all go online to online dictionaries to find the definitions that they are trying to define. In conclusion I think Oxford will publish their third edition online. Doing so would allow them to reach out to more customers, and ultimately help them raise profits.