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News

Our news collection is a unique and extensive archive of newspapers, which has been acquired by legal deposit, purchase and donation, dating from the 17th century to today, including 36,000 titles

Free to view content

Almost 3.5 million pages on the British Newspaper Archive site have become free to view, so not requiring any subscription payment. This number will continue to grow over the coming years, with the aim of shedding light on the diverse content held by the British Library. The free titles cover dates from 1720 to circa 1900.   

Users will still need to sign up with the British Newspaper Archive to be able to access them, though no charge will be made for their use.  

Information on discovering and using the 'free to view' titles is available on the British Newspaper Archive at The British Newspaper Archive Blog New Free to View Pages | British Newspaper Archive  

Outside of the resources we subscribe to there are many freely available sites providing access to digitised newspapers. An extensive list of both subscribed and free digital resources for newspapers from around the world can be found on the International Coalition on Newspapers (ICON) website: ICON - International Coalition on Newspapers (crl.edu)