The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph has reached an agreement with Google to publish its archives on the Internet search engine.

Although exact sums are not known, the Quebec city paper will receive "half of the revenue from ads that appear on accessed archival pages," according to publisher and part-owner Peter Little.

The Telegraph was originally published in 1764, and claims to be the "oldest continually published newspaper in North America." They currently have a subscription base of 2,000.

This move, aimed at "making millions of pages of news archives accessible and searchable online" by the online giant, is "one of many" in the past two years, with the likes of the Washington Post and the New York Times. It is a great indication of the transition of the newspaper medium into a digital age.

"This project will raise our visibility (and) help to even bring us new readers," Little said.

Internet users will have access to a myriad of stories, as "the news within our archives covers the most important milestones in the early history of Canada and the United States of America," said Little. Little also pointed out the benefits of "generating fresh revenue from old newspapers."

While compensation for online published newspaper material is a step toward saving the failing print industry, the step toward dependence on online media should be a cautious one.

Source: Jouralism.co.uk