Britannica - blame yourself
So the Britannica press release does is admitting they failed to be relevant on the Web. If competing with Wikipedia is their goal, how about blaming their own failed business model? Why can't they get right what every little startup online game and every porn site does?
Step 1: Attract users with free content
Step 2: Advertise paid bonus content
Step 3: Attract paying users
Step 4: ???
Step 5: Profit! (literally)
Is it that difficult to give the non-paying surfing public a basic illustrated 2-page article?
Then, include paid extra features like videos, extended references, author commentary, scientific reviews, moderated forums, educational content for schools, advanced search, database access, historic maps, detailed statistics...
Basicly, understand the encyclopedia as free bait for a knowledge provider.
Dear Britannica people, if you want to talk about it, I'll be here all evening...