Phil Edwards looked at how the folks behind the Guinness Book of World Records are changing how they do business:

• 20% of Guinness’ revenues now come from “consulting services”.
• What this means is that it helps companies come up with records they can break and then sends over judges to adjudicate. The resulting media attention is worth several hundreds of thousands of dollars.
• The book’s parent company has also experimented with museums similar to those that house the exhibits from Ripley’s Believe It or Not!
• Changes in business strategy are being driven in part by the decline of the book industry – although 1 million books outlining the latest records are still sold every year.
• There is also increased competition, from sites like RecordSetter where people can make and break their own records.

Read about how The Guinness Book of World Records has become a bastion of native advertising, why many of its records are tailor made for internet culture, and more over here.

Source: Vox