Library Guides: Journalism: Newspapers and news sources

Current Newspaper Collections

These databases are updated daily and can be used to search UK and international news from the 1980s onwards. You can search within one publication or save time by searching across a range of sources.

Nexis UK and Factiva let you access newspapers which are normally restricted by paywalls, such as The Times (London) and the New York Times.

Nexis UK
Is a news database which offers national, regional and international news from a range of sources on various subjects emphasising on business and industry, including company and industry reports. Its content is updated daily and many titles have a 20 year archive.

Limitation - You may only download a single copy of insubstantial portions of those Materials included in any individually searchable file or content source in the Online Services. Please note that the length of time to store a single copy of downloaded materials from this resource in machine readable form is limited to 90 days only. See details below for more information.

Nexis cannot be used for any non-academic purposes. Text data mining is not permitted within our Nexis UK licence.
Accessibility information for Nexis UK
The right to retrieve and store machine-readable copies of Materials is limited to the retrieval of a single copy of a reasonable portion of the Materials included in any individual file of the Online Services using the downloading commands of the Online Services or your web browser software and storage of that copy in machine readable form for no more than 90 days, primarily for one person’s exclusive use, to the extent the storage of those Materials is not further limited or prohibited by the Additional Terms.
Factiva
Provides access to current content of international newspapers including major world newspapers in different scripts and languages. Some archives dating back to 1980. Coverage includes market and industry reports, financial market data and trade press in business, economic, media, engineering and more.

Limitation - Please note that the length of time to store a single copy of downloaded materials from this resource in machine readable form is limited to 30 days only. Text data mining is not permitted within our Factiva UK licence. See details below for more information.
Accessibility information for Factiva
The right to retrieve and store machine-readable copies of Materials is limited to the retrieval of a single copy of a reasonable portion of the Materials included in any individual file of the Online Services using the downloading commands of the Online Services or your web browser software and storage of that copy in machine readable form for no more than 30 days, primarily for one person’s exclusive use, to the extent the storage of those Materials is not further limited or prohibited by the Additional Terms.

PressReader
PressReader provides full digital replicas of more than 2,300 newspaper and magazine titles from 97 countries in 54 languages. Please be aware that PressReader only provides access to the last 12 months of most publications.
FT.com
We've arranged a subscription to the FT.com website for you, giving you access to all of the site including apps for phones and tablets, up-to-date news and information, and all the FT's articles.

To use this resource you must register for an account first. Please see the link below for instructions.
How to register and re-register for a Financial Times account

Economist.com
Authoritative weekly magazines of news and opinion, covering world politics, economics, business finance, science and technology. Full-text available from June 1997 to present.
Accessibility information for Economist.com
The Economist Online also offers a variety of web-only content, including blogs, debates and audio/video programmes. Access is sponsored by The Worshipful Company of International Bankers.

Searching news sources with Nexis UK

Nexis UK offers several powerful search options for its newspaper database.

Searching all news sources

To search all news sources, select the 'News' link in the 'Search' tab at the top of the screen:

The Nexis UK header bar, highlighting the 'News' search tab.

You can then either run a basic search for your search terms, or select 'Advanced Search' to build a more complex search. The Advanced Search will allow you to:

Select a date range.
Include or exclude search terms.
Search for a particular byline.
Specify where your search terms should appear (e.g. in a headline).
Specify the length of the article.

Searching one specific news source

To search one specific paper or news source:

Select the 'News' link in the 'Search' tab at the top of the screen.
Select the appropriate location from the 'By Region' section, under the main search bar. For example, to search the Times, select 'Europe' and then 'United Kingdom'.
Nexis will then display a list of all papers and news sources from the selected country. To search just one news source, select the name of the publication from the list. The name of the paper will be displayed at the side of the search box:

You can then either run a basic search for your search terms, or select 'Advanced Search' to build a more complex search. The Advanced Search will allow you to:

Select a date range.
Include or exclude search terms.
Search for a particular byline.
Specify where your search terms should appear (e.g. in a headline).
Specify the length of the article.

Searching two or more news sources

To search two or more specific papers or news sources:

Select the 'News' link in the 'Search' tab tab at the top of the screen.
Select the appropriate location from the 'By Region' section, under the main search bar. For example, to search several UK national broadsheets, select 'Europe' and then 'United Kingdom'.
Nexis will then display a list of all papers and news sources from the selected country.
To search multiple news sources at once, choose the 'Select sources to search' option under the search box. This will enable checkboxes next to each title:
Locate the titles you would like to search, and select the checkbox next to each one.
Once selected, each source will be applied as a search filter, and will display in the filter panel next to the search box. Hold your cursor over this panel to see a full list.

You can then either run a basic search for your search terms, or select 'Advanced Search' to build a more complex search. The Advanced Search will allow you to:

Select a date range.
Include or exclude search terms.
Search for a particular byline.
Specify where your search terms should appear (e.g. in a headline).
Specify the length of the article.

Getting more help searching Nexis UK

Nexis UK provides a guide to searching Nexis UK on their database that covers the different search functions. Alternatively, for personalised help with your specific search needs, book an appointment with City's Arts Subject Librarian.

BBC Monitoring

BBC Monitoring is a division of the BBC which monitors, and reports on, mass media worldwide. Content is updated daily.

Digital archives

Daily Mail Historical Archive 1896-2016
Digitised pages of the Daily Mail complete from 1896-2016. Includes images, adverts etc in addition to text.
Accessibility information for Daily Mail Historical Archive
Economist Historical Archive, 1843-2020
Covers weekly commentary and comprehensive analysis of global news including economics, political, business, scientific, technological and cultural developments.
It provides access to every issue of ‘The Economist’ from 1843 to 2020.
Accessibility information for Economist Historical Archive
Financial Times Historical Archive, 1888-2021
Provides a complete access to the Financial Times newspaper from 1888-2021. Content includes UK & international business, finance, economic & political news, comments & analysis. A trusted research tool for everyone studying the economic and business history.
Accessibility information for Financial Times Historical Archive
Guardian and Observer Archive, The
Searchable, full text access to The Guardian (1821-2003) and The Observer (1791-2003), includes topics on wars, industrial developments, arts, culture, business, sports and more.
Accessibility information for Historical Newspapers:The Guardian and the Observer, 1791-2003
Independent Historical Archive, 1986-2016
Full digital archive of The Independent newspaper from 1986-2016.
Accessibility information for Independent Historical Archive
New York Times Archive with Index 1851-2019, The
Includes topics on wars, industrial developments, arts, culture, business, sports and more.
Accessibility information for New York Times Archive
Sunday Times Historical Archive, 1822-2021
Digitised archive of The Sunday Times, 1822-2021. Includes images, adverts etc in addition to text.
Accessibility information for Sunday Times Historical Archives
Telegraph Historical Archive
Digitised archive of The Telegraph newspaper. This first release of the database contains 54% of content from across the 1855-2016 date range. Content from the 1980s onwards is almost complete, the main gap being between 1940 and 1952. Content will continue to be added until the archive is complete.
Accessibility information for Telegraph Historical Archive
Times Digital Archive; 1785-2019
Digitised pages of The Times complete from 1785-2019. Includes images, adverts etc in addition to text.
Accessibility information for Times Digital Archive
See also: Sunday Times Digital Archive
Washington Post, The
Searchable full-text access from 1877 to 2006.
Accessibility information for Washington Post

Gale Primary Sources

Gale Primary Sources is a dynamic search platform which allows you to cross-search the content of The Daily Mail Historical Archive, The Times Digital Archive, The Sunday Times Historical Archive, The Telegraph Historical Archive, The Independent Historical Archive, The Financial Times Historical Archive and The Economist Historical Archive.

You can print, email, and download your search results, and you can create an account with Primary Sources to save and tag your research.

Search tips

Use Term Clusters to see terms that commonly occur in relation to your own search term. This can help uncover hidden connections, or can be a helpful starting point.
Use the Term Frequency function to see the frequency of a search term in the content over time. This shows the importance of particular concepts during given periods.

How to use Gale Primary Sources

Magazines

Rock's Backpages
Rock's Backpages is an online database of rock music writing. Sourced from the pages of the music and mainstream press, it is a library of articles (reviews, interviews, features and more) from the early 1960s right up to the present day.
Accessibility information for Rock's Backpages

Vogue Archive
The Vogue Archive contains the entire run of Vogue magazine (US edition), from the first issue in 1892 to the current month, reproduced in high-resolution colour page images. Every page, advertisement, cover and fold-out has been included, with rich indexing enabling you to find images by garment type, designer and brand names.