One idea that newspapers could adopt is that of one of the world's greatest magazines, The New Yorker. The famed weekly has just released a small, portable hard drive (3-by-5-inch) with its entire archives back to 1925. The 80-gig drive connects to any computer with a USB port and installs a reader onto the user's computer.

With the reader, content is laid out in exactly the same format of the original publication including advertisements and the weekly's revered cartoons.  

The device costs $299.

All in all, this seems like a great idea for the New Yorker which provides a combination of literature with investigative reporting and commentary. But could it work for a newspaper?

As of now, I would say no. There is an overload of disposable content in a daily newspaper.

But if newspapers are to move more towards news analysis instead of printing every piece of breaking news as some pundits predict, such an idea could some day prove interesting for publishers of large dailies.

Or, publishers could create selective products. For example, the Philadelphia Inquirer, to take a random paper, could create such a database of archives about it's core competency, the city of Philadelphia. That way, people who love their town could look back decades to see how it has evolved. 

Of course, the idea of a like, portable hard drive could be obsolete in a few years if promises of ubiquitous WiMax Internet access are realized and anyone can access online archives from anywhere.

Digital library archives: a kink in the copyright argument?

The British Library and the National Library of New Zealand have combined their efforts to facilitate digital preservation. The project, which was conducted in conjunction with International Internet Preservation Consortium, will increase the practice of 'web-harvesting' or 'using software to search out and gather snapshots of websites'. Most web pages disappear after a few months so the project would ensure that pages important to history remain intact.

The British Library has run into some copyright complications but is working with its government to modify the laws. It has already argued that the entire British music archives could be lost if the copyright laws are not changed.

The implications for newspapers are huge. Libraries have always kept print newspaper archives for use by their members free of charge. Then there was microfilm which saved storage space. Then, with Lexis Nexis came a digital database of all articles from many publications around the world. The service costs a substantial amount of money but many educational institutions and libraries subscribe.    

Now, libraries have the chance to digitize all of the archives that they have and place them on their website for members, essentially rendering paid-for archives from major publishers null. If the British courts, for instance, eventually decide that newspaper archives are essential to the preservation of the nation's cultural heritage, there will be no stopping the library from placing archives from all British newspapers onto its website.

Google is attempting the same thing with books but has also run into legal trouble with publishers who claim that it will be earning revenue off of their books. But the search engine giant could eventually win if it places its book scanning project under the auspices of its non-profit wing which has a similar status to that of a library.

Do paid-for newspaper archives have a chance?