The British Newspaper Archive Celebrates its 3rd Birthday

The following press release was issued in celebration of The British Newspaper Archive’s website’s 3rd birthday:

The British Newspaper Archive celebrates its 3rd birthday

The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk) has come a long way since the website launched on 29 November 2011 with 4 million historic newspaper pages.

9 million newspaper pages now online

The collection is now more than twice the size, with over 9 million fully searchable pages available from 300 British and Irish titles. The newspapers cover 1710 – 1954, a much broader time period than at launch.

If you weren’t able to find a particular person, event or place when The British Newspaper Archive launched, it’s well worth looking again now. Visit www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk to try a search for free.

Revealed: the 5 most popular searches

As a birthday celebration, The British Newspaper Archive has used website analytics to work out the five most popular newspaper titles and search terms.

Based on search volume, the most popular titles are:

1.       Hull Daily Mail
2.       Aberdeen Journal
3.       Dundee Courier
4.       Bath Chronicle & Weekly Gazette
5.       Nottingham Evening Post

While some of the more unusual examples include ‘mouth is worn slightly open’ and ‘eyes with red hot needles’, the five most common search terms are:

1.       Football
2.       Murder
3.       Death
4.       Jack the Ripper
5.       Railway

You’ll find more information about The British Newspaper Archive and how the website is being used at http://blog.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/2014/11/28/the-british-newspaper-archive-is-3-years-old/