Newspapers

Newspapers are available online with a small number in print. The Library Search item record will indicate whether the newspaper is available electronically.

Some older copies are available on microfilm in the Brotherton Library (floor 1). For others you will need to complete a store request form.

Using Nexis to find newspaper articles

You can search or browse Nexis for newspaper articles. Nexis is a full-text database of news items from a wide range of sources dating back to 1981.

To browse a list of all UK newspapers covered by Nexis:

1. Select the News tab.
2. Select Europe in the By Region section.
3. Select United Kingdom from the list.

A list of titles will now appear, and you can search these individually or in groups.

You can also search by time period, headline, or major topics that are mentioned. This is useful for when your search is likely to retrieve a great number of articles.

To view the full article, click on the highlighted title of the article.

Find historic newspapers

You can find various historic newspapers in the Library. Collections are available in digital format as well as on microfilm.

Search the following historic newspaper collections:

• Asahi Shimbun Kikuzo II Visual: one of the largest newspaper databases of Japan covering the Tokyo and Osaka editions, with more than 13 million articles and advertisements since its first issue in 1879. Full-text searching is available for post-1985 articles.
• British Newspapers: 1600–1950: an extensive collection of full-text newspapers from across the British Isles and the British Empire.
• Burney Collection Newspapers (17th–18th Century): newspapers, pamphlets, and books gathered by the Reverend Charles Burney (1757–1817).
• Daily Mail Historical Archive: searchable full text back to the first issue of the Daily Mail (1896–2016).
• Daily Mirror Historical Archive, 1903–2000: searchable full text of this left-of-centre, Labour Party supporting “red top” daily.
• Economist: historical archive of the Economist (from 1843 to 2020), charting the economic conditions of the 19th and 20th centuries on a weekly basis.
• Financial Times Archive: searchable full text from the first issue of the Financial Times (1888–2016)
• The Guardian and The Observer: searchable full text back to the first issues of The Guardian (1821–2003) and The Observer (1791–2003).
• Illustrated London News: weekly newspaper offering a perspective on British and world events. This archive offers every issue published in the paper’s lifetime, 1842–2003.
• Independent Historical Archive, 1986–2016: digital versions of every print issue of this politically-centre-ground daily are found in this resource.
• Le Monde 1944–2000: full text of this key French daily.
• New York Times: contains all articles between 1857 and 2017. This is an excellent source for contemporary coverage of events during this period.
  • New York Times 1857–1922
  • New York Times 1923–2017
• Nexis: news articles from 1981. Nexis covers thousands of newspapers from around the world.
• Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers: the introduction to this GALE resource states “major newspapers stand alongside those published by African Americans, Native Americans, women's rights groups, labor groups, and the Confederacy”. Newspapers big and small report on events from all over the USA, documenting the emergence of the US as a major nation.
• Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Nichols Newspaper Collection: a collection of newspapers, periodicals, pamphlets, and broadsheets which are said by some to offer a counterpoint to the Burney Collection of newspapers (anecdotally the two collectors were rivals and each attempted to collect what the other had not).
• Sunday Mirror Historical Archive, 1916–2000: searchable full text of this left-leaning Sunday “red top”.
• Sunday Times Historical Archive, 1822–2016: originally intended to rival The Observer, this archive contains the full text of the Sunday Times, starting with the first issue of this broadsheet.
• Telegraph Historical Archive: searchable full text back to the first issues of the Daily Telegraph (1855–2000).
• Times Digital Archive: an excellent resource for reports on events between 1785 and 2019.
• The Wall Street Journal: archive coverage of this pre-eminent financial newspaper for 1889–1921.
• The Washington Post (1877–2003): archive which starts with the founding edition of this major US daily from 1877.
• Waterloo Directory of English Newspapers and Periodicals, 1800–1900: if you are struggling to find contemporary sources for the 19th century, this database tells you what was published. Although there is no full text with this resource, it will tell you where the newspapers and periodicals are located in the UK.