Research: Newspapers and News Media: Databases (Single titles & collections)

Related Guides

Election News and Data
Covers media outlets and news sources pertaining to elections.

Newspaper Databases

Single title subscriptions:

Boston Globe 1980+ This link opens in a new window Date coverage: 1980 - present. Searchable, current article text from the Boston Globe (no images, illustrations or charts included). For earlier editions use Boston Globe (ProQuest Historical Newspapers)
Boston Globe (1872-1988) (ProQuest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window Date coverage: 1872 - 1988. Full-page images and article images (PDF) with searchable full text from the newspaper The Boston Globe and its title variants. NOTE: For 1988+ use
Chicago Defender (1910-1975) (ProQuest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window Date coverage: 1910-1975. Full-page images and article images (PDF) with searchable full text from the African American newspaper Chicago Defender under all its title variants.
Chicago Tribune (1849-1996) (ProQuest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window Date coverage: 1849-1996. Full-page and article images (PDF) with searchable full text from the Chicago Tribune and all its title variants. NOTE: For 1997+ use Nexis Uni.

Harper’s Weekly 1857-1912

Los Angeles Times (1881- 1995) (ProQuest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window Date coverage: 1881 - 1995). Full-page images and article images (PDF) with searchable full text from the Los Angeles Times under all its title variants. NOTE: For 1996+ use Nexis Uni.
New York Times (1851- 2016) (ProQuest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window Date coverage: 1851-2016. Full-page images and article images (PDF) with searchable full text of the New York Times back issues. Additions each year keep it within 3 years of the current year. NOTE: For 2016+ use Nexis Uni.
Times Digital Archive, 1785-1985 (London) This link opens in a new window Date coverage: 1785 - 1985. An online archive of every headline, article, editorial, announcement, image and advertisement published in The Times (London) to 1985. Full page images and article images (PDF) with searchable full text. NOTE: For 1985+ use Nexis Uni.
Washington Post (1877- 2002) (ProQuest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window Date coverage: 1877-2002. Full-page images and article images (PDF) with searchable full text from the Washington Post under all its title variants. NOTE: For 2003+ use Nexis Uni.

Databases (multiple titles):

Nexis Uni (formerly Lexis/Nexis Academic)
1980+ Text-only multidisciplinary database that includes current newspapers and magazines, trade journals, wire services and transcripts. Date coverage and completeness varies by publication, but generally 1980+. see Search Tips for Uni

PressReader This link opens in a new window
Full-page images and article images with searchable full text of international newspapers from the last 90 days, in the original language. Includes computer-generated translations to English and other languages for some papers.
Access World News This link opens in a new window
Text-only Selected full-text of current and archived articles from small-circulation newspapers; broadcast transcripts, and news magazines. Easy-to-use interface that can be filtered by geographic location and/or media type.
Factiva This link opens in a new window Provides worldwide full text coverage of local and regional newspapers, trade publications, business newswires, press release wires, media transcripts, news photos, business-rich websites, investment analyst reports, market research reports, country and regional profiles, company profiles, historical market data. Date coverage varies by publication.
International Newsstream This link opens in a new window International, searchable, full text coverage of selected newspapers. (Text only; does not include images, charts.) Date coverage: 1977 - present.
Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new window Full text articles from newspapers and periodicals published by ethnic, minority and native presses in the U.S. Includes both historic publications, starting in 1959, as well as current ones.
Canadian Major Dailies This link opens in a new window Canadian Major Dailies provides the full text of 20 Canadian national and regional newspapers including the National Post, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Montreal Gazette, Ottawa Citizen, Regina Leader Post, Toronto Star, Vancouver Sun, and the Victoria Times-Colonist. Date coverage: Varies by title.
17th-18th century Burney Collection Newspapers This link opens in a new window Searchable full-text access to the British Library's collection of the newspapers, pamphlets, and books gathered by Reverend Charles Burney (1757-1817), the largest and most comprehensive collection of early English news media. Date coverage: 1604-1804.
Accessible Archives This link opens in a new window Eyewitness accounts of historical events, ads and genealogical records published in popular 19th century newspapers including African-American publications.
African Newspapers from the World Newspaper Archive This link opens in a new window This full-text, searchable collection of 19th and early 20th century African newspapers includes titles from the following countries: Angola, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Sao Tome & Principe, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Date coverage: 1831 to 1923.
America's Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Fully searchable digital images of newspapers from 23 states and the District of Columbia.
NOTE: BU has: * Early American Newspapers, Series I, 1690 -1876
(Boston Public Library has the entire collection, accessible with an eCard.)
American Periodicals This link opens in a new window
Not newspapers, but historically significant periodicals that were the news magazines of the time; periodicals published between 1740 and 1940, including special interest and general magazines.
American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals This link opens in a new window
Digitized images of American magazines published between 1684 and 1912. Covers history of slavery, literature, women's and religious issues, politics, culture, the arts and foreign language journals published in the U.S. Rights for use by Boston University community supported by the Boston University Humanities Library Endowed Fund.
Associated Press Images Collection This link opens in a new window
Associated Press Images Collection is a searchable collection of recent and historical photos from the Associated Press, plus AP graphics, articles, and brief sound clips.

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers 1789-1924
Image-based source from the Library of Congress. Digital full text available from 1789-1924 for selected newspapers (coverage varies by title).
African American newspapers (Accessible Archives) 1827-1902 Titles in the Collection: The Christian Recorder; The Colored American/Weekly Advocate; Frederick Douglass’ Paper Freedom’s Journal; The National Era; The North Star; Provincial Freeman.
Elephind A free archive cross-search tool that combines content from Chronicling America, Australia's Trove, New Zealand's Papers past, and a number of U.S. library archives. (For a list of archives and titles see 'About Elephind' on the website).
Google News Archives Image-based; random newspapers digitized by Google. (Google stopped digitizing newspapers in 2011.)

Vanderbilt Television News Archive This link opens in a new window
Streaming video of news and commercials from NBC and CNN plus searchable archive of abstracts of news broadcasts from ABC, CBS, Fox News, and other channels . Date coverage: NBC video 1968 - present; CNN video 1995 - present.