Google stops digitizing old newspapers for news archives, will give copies of archived issues to their respective publishers to host on their own websites; collection still available, but won't be added to

Bdebbie Garcia

LOS ANGELES , May 23, 2011 (Forestweb) – Google Inc. ceased digitizing old newspaper issues on May 20 for its Google News Archives; it will still have the collection available at news.google.com/archivesearch, but not add to it, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP) on May 21.

Copies of the more than 3.5 million issues of over 2,000 different newspaper titles that it has digitized will be given to their respective publishers to make available on their own websites, where the companies can make money on article archives instead of having them hosted free online.

The Google News Archives digitization program, which was a collaborative effort between Google and the newspaper publishers, will no longer add features or functionality, nor will it “accept any new microfilm or digital files for processing,” the Internet firm said, Google News reported.

The project was started in September 2008, with the intention of providing an accessible and searchable assortment of old newspapers, which includes the London Advertiser from 1895, L’Ami du Lecteur from the early 1900s, and the Milwaukee Sentinel from 1910 to 1995.

The earliest edition is a March 23, 1752 issue of the Halifax Gazette in Nova Scotia, reported Google News.

The primary source of this article is Agence France-Presse (AFP), Paris, France, on May 21, 2011.

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