British Newspaper Archive Subscription - historic newspapers online

 


Give a subscription to the British Newspaper Archive -
history lovers can view millions of historic newspapers online!

The British Newspaper Archive  is an incredible resource for anyone who wants to immerse themselves and get lost in historic newspapers, all from the comfort and convenience of home.  It is amazing what they can tell you about the past and the way people used to live.   It's a great way to escape the 21st century, and go back in time!  You can learn a lot about life and past times by looking at the newspapers and magazines.  

The Archive is growing week by week.   There are now 106,191,190 pages - and it keeps getting bigger! 

What's more!  Its website has been quietly changing and in July 2026, the changes to it were announced which should significantly improve relevance, particularly for genealogists and those tracing individuals through time.  The British Newspaper Archive says that three areas stand out:

  • A more powerful search experience.  There are now two distinct inputs:

    The Names Box - it's for people and it understands how names work in newspapers to help avoid irrelevant results

    The Keywords Box deals with everything else such as places, events, themes, issues, organisations, occupations and so on.
  • The move from bookmarks and saved searches to Workspaces.  The Workspaces give you the chance to think, to bring lots of collections togheter, to add notes and observations and to shape material into something which is more structured.  I think this will be a great tool.

    Collections mean you can group clippings around an idea, person, place or question while you're on your discovery journey.  

  • There are new tools for organising clippings into collections and structured research

So, says the Archive, you should be able to search smarter, and save what matters clippings with context and organise using collections.  Overall, you should be able to turn a lot of pages into something more focused and personal.  It should be more meaningful and make life easier.   Find out more about the new changes here.

Subscription begins at £9.99 a month and you can choose from a 1-month, 3-month or yearly subscription.   Subscribe to the British Newspaper Archive here
 

Newspapers are a window into past times

They give a real flavour of what life was like, what was important, what mattered to people and what they wanted to hear about.  You can get a “feel” for the times and what was happening locally and nationally, day to day.  

Letters and editorials give you a really good idea of the views people held at the time of publication, and also of attitudes.   For instance, local advertisements, local events, even notices in the personal ads, give a flavour of local life. If you're researching the family history, it can particularly give you an inkling  of what the lives of your relatives might have been like. Can you imagine what people would have been discussing at the dinner table, or the events they would have been looking forward to at the weekend?  What would they have been tempted to buy as a result of the adverts in the papers?  

Subscribe to the British Newspaper Archive here.

Immerse yourself in history by delving into historic newspapers, all from the comfort of home! 

So what can you search for with The British Newspaper Archive?

The Archive has an amazing search facility, to help you find what you're looking for.   You can search by newspaper, region, country, county, the type of resource you're looking for, and the date you're looking for, so it's a mine of information on things such as:

  • News articles –events and issues of local, regional, national and international importance
  • Family notices – birth, marriage and death notices, announcements about engagements, anniversaries, birthdays and congratulations
  • Letters written to the editor by readers – what were they writing about? What did they care about? What did they want to share?
  • Obituaries on the lives of notable people
  • Advertisements – what were people wanting to buy, what did business want to sell?
  • Illustrations – photos, engravings, graphics, maps, cartoons

What else does the Archive have?

  • Headlines from History looks at how papers reported happenings of the time, such as Pets in Parliament, the Jitterbug dance which divided Britain in the 1940s.  
  • New titles added – this is a round up of new papers added during the week
  • Tips for using the Archive so that you can really make the most of it such as how to research local history
  • Genealogy and family history – which papers are best to do your research with?
  • Plus lots of history to read!

The Archive is a partnership between the British Library and Findmypast.  The British Library’s collection is huge – it’s got newspapers from 1603 to the present day, as well as 300,000 reels of microfilm. 

Give a subscription to the British Newspaper Archive here