Archive
To Write or Not too Right?
I am afraid that the end of more than 300 years of Cursive writing is at an end in education, and that bothers me.
We are raising future generations who may not be able to write, period. I guess I would be considered a cursive loyalist.
Does it bother anyone else? Are you concerned that your kids or the very next generation of children won’t even know what it is? If I were choosing a school for my children, I would seek out the ones that still teach the basics. And, then add in technology. I love modern technology, but at the expense of it, we should not give up teaching written communication-more importantly, cursive writing.
Thoughts anyone?
Cursive handwriting has been taught for more than 300 years in U.S. schools and was once the principle way of communicating. It was used for all public documents, such as land deeds, legal paperwork, and business records, and for personal letters and even generals’ orders in battle. The quality of cursive writing was an indicator of social status and educational level (Mehegan, 2009; Supon, 2009; Wolfe, 2009; Wallace & Schomer, 1994).
For decades, American students spent 45 minutes every day learning and practicing cursive writing.
Until the 1970s, penmanship was a separate daily lesson from first through sixth grade and a separate grade on report cards. Since that time, however, its importance in the elementary school curriculum has declined steadily (New American Cursive Penmanship Program, 2009; Carpenter, 2007; Pressler, 2006; Francis, 2000).
Fro more reading, here is a very recent article on the cursive debate:
- State Board of Education of Kansas is debating the role of cursive lesson in the schools amid a nationwide decline in those lessons.
- School districts large and small have been phasing out cursive. Verona, Wis., will phase out most third-grade cursive instruction by 2014. Indiana formally de-emphasized cursive last year in favor of pushing proficiency in keyboard use.
- Common Core State Standards for what students are expected to learn have been picked up by most of the states in the union. Those standards don’t require cursive. Keyboarding skills, however, are featured in the writing standards. That means most states no longer have a mandate for teaching cursive.
- According to a report issued by Miami-Dade County Public Schools, cursive handwriting has been on a slow decline since the 1970s. We have become a keyboard culture, but it seems to be accelerating in recent years.
- In the 1960s and 1970s, the Zaner-Bloser Company, which has been publishing a penmanship curriculum since 1904, recommended 40 minutes of handwriting instruction per day. By the 1980s, it suggested just 15 minutes. Zaner-Bloser offers course work through eighth grade but admits that schools rarely purchase materials beyond the third grade.
- In Zaner-Bloser’s 2005 national survey, a majority of elementary school teachers reported spending one hour or less on handwriting per week(Suddath, 2009; Kelley, 2007).
- According to a 2007 nationwide survey on handwriting instruction by researchers at Vanderbilt University (Graham et al., 2007), cursive handwriting is still widely taught in U.S. public and private schools. The researchers surveyed a random sample of approximately 200 teachers in grades 1-3 in all 50 states. Ninety percent of the responding teachers stated that their schools required instruction in handwriting. In schools that taught handwriting, 50 percent of second grade teachers and 90 percent of third grade teachers offered instruction in cursive handwriting.
- Teachers reported that they spent about 60 minutes per week, or 12-15 minutes per day, teaching cursive. Graham and colleagues (2007) cautioned that survey results were based on self-reported numbers and that a separate study with direct observation of 22 teachers in one school district found that far less time was devoted to cursive handwriting.
- Graham and colleagues (2007) also reported that school districts varied significantly in the amount of handwriting instruction they provided to students. For example, the researchers visited second and third grade classrooms that offered virtually no instruction in cursive handwriting.
- In general, their observations of U.S. classrooms found that the emphasis in U.S. schools have shifted from the formation of letters to the ability to write legibly and efficiently. Other researchers have noted that cursive writing’s declining importance in the curriculum is reflected by a lessening of the standards used to evaluate it. Over the years, the goal of teaching penmanship has shifted from “high quality” to “legibility” (Pressler, 2006; Wallace & Schomer, 1994).
Share this post if you support cursive writing as core curriculum in schools and across education.
A Perspective on The Economy
A PERSONAL COMMUNICATION and COMMUNITY PERSPECTIVE:
We are an impatient people. And, no matter who becomes the next president, one can not microwave (systemic) change.
It took a full ten+ years to pull us out of the great depression. We complain about our national debt but change begins at the individual level as well. Who of you in four years has paid down All of your OWN debt or have you just continued to go farther into debt (possibly some, but not All) How many of you have hired just one extra person for a job to keep a family from going under, (split a higher paying job budget between two workers)?
How many of you have fed or invited an unemployed family down the street from you in foreclosure for dinner?
It starts with us, from the bottom up and not from the top down in all our efforts.
What ever similarities are drawn from the Great Depression and what we see today. Can we really immediate change in under 4 years?
1) I believe that there are two major differences in the economic circumstances of 1933 and 2008 which transcend other issues and have literally save us in some respects comparatively speaking. First, thousands of banks “failed” between 1929 and 1933, wiping out the savings of millions of “hard-working, playing by the rules” middle-class Americans. Since fall 2008, not a single depositor in a U.S. bank has lost a dime of savings due to FDR’s Banking Act of 1933, which created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
While the stock market and housing prices tanked, the fact that bank accounts were intact was of immense psychological value to savers at all income levels. Undoubtedly, this depositor sense of security had a positive effect on the stock market rebounding quickly so now it is more than double what it was in February 2009.
2) Secondly, and just as importantly, because of Social Security, started in 1935, the purchasing power of today’s seniors has been greatly, although not entirely, protected. Social Security payments, combined with the unemployment insurance benefits (also initiated in 1935) paid to the millions laid off due to the downturn, have kept consumer purchases much more stable than they otherwise would have been. This is in contrast to the complete removal by 1933 of the purchasing power of nearly 25 percent of the workforce that became suddenly unemployed. The economy just shriveled up.
1. Stock Market Crash of 1929
Many believe erroneously that the stock market crash that occurred on Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929 is one and the same with the Great Depression. In fact, it was one of the major causes that led to the Great Depression. Two months after the original crash in October, stockholders had lost more than $40 billion dollars. Even though the stock market began to regain some of its losses, by the end of 1930, it just was not enough and America truly entered what is called the Great Depression.
2. Bank Failures
3. Reduction in Purchasing Across the Board
With the stock market crash and the fears of further economic woes, individuals from all classes stopped purchasing items. This then led to a reduction in the number of items produced and thus a reduction in the workforce. As people lost their jobs, they were unable to keep up with paying for items they had bought through installment plans and their items were repossessed. More and more inventory began to accumulate. The unemployment rate rose above 25% which meant, of course, even less spending to help alleviate the economic situation.
4. American Economic Policy with Europe
As businesses began failing, the government created the Smoot-Hawley Tariff in 1930 to help protect American companies. This charged a high tax for imports thereby leading to less trade between America and foreign countries along with some economic retaliation.
5. Drought Conditions
While not a direct cause of the Great Depression, the drought that occurred in the Mississippi Valley in 1930 was of such proportions that many could not even pay their taxes or other debts and had to sell their farms for no profit to themselves. The area was nicknamed “The Dust Bowl.” This was the topic of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath.
6. Unemployment to continue to purchase good and services within the economy
Throughout the Great Depression, there was little information on the extent of unemployment in the country. More important, there was no good way to assess whether the situation was getting better or worse. The wealth of timely statistical information on the labor market that we now take for granted simply didn’t exist. Throughout the 1930s, researchers grappled with the issue of how to measure unemployment. To begin with, there wasn’t agreement on how to conceptualize or define the condition. Simply asking those out of work if they “wanted” work or if they were “able” or “willing” to work proved to be too subjective to serve as unemployment criteria. At the same time, attempts to gauge the number of jobless by looking at declines in employment or counting the registrations at public employment offices were found to be incomplete. By the way, the second dip during the Depression was in 1937 and came as a result of austerity measures.
The whole unemployment schema today is a numbers game and it all depends on which lens one is looking through to sell those numbers. Systemically, we have more people, more kids, more families to feed no ifs and or butts about it today than in 1930.
One unemployment perspective today is about the actual current civilian workforce vs 208 against the total US population. Another is all of those not being counted who have dropped off the employment labor roster and workforce grid all together, and another is DOL’s BLS reporting which has significantly changed on how we look at number vs. how we looked at unemployment in the 1930′s.
Newsweek Magazine to End an Era of Print
Newsweek is closing down it’s print edition at the end of 2012. As a result of this news, I bought a copy of Newsweek for my archives last night. In 2003, Newsweek’s worldwide circulation was more than 4 million, including 2.7 million in the U.S; by 2010 it was down to 1.5 million (with newsstand sales declining to just over 40 thousand copies per week). Newsweek publishes editions in Japanese, Korean, Polish, Spanish, Rioplatense Spanish, Arabic, and Turkish, as well as an English language Newsweek International. Russian Newsweek, published since 2004, was shut in October 2010. The Bulletin (an Australian weekly until 2008) incorporated an international news section from Newsweek. Based in New York City, the magazine has 22 bureaus: nine in the U.S.: New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago/Detroit, Dallas, Miami, Washington, D.C., Boston and San Francisco, as well as overseas in London, Paris, Berlin, Moscow, Jerusalem, Baghdad, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Beijing, South Asia, Cape Town, Mexico City and Buenos Aires.
I come from an era where reading a real newspaper or weekly news magazine ( see top US magazines by circulation) was a regular event for me. Sadly, it’s been probably about a year or more since I’ve read a full newspaper from front page to the back. And now, it may actually become a lost “art” of sorts, sooner than one might think. I believe our newspaper journalists are an endangered species.
In fact, I am starting to collect a few newspapers. Just a few here and there that are news worthy or interesting to me, like my earlier post about my late 1800 Penny Press Newspaper from France, Newsweek, Time, the election of President Obama, and the death’s of Princess Diana and Micheal Jackson.
Here are some examples of newspapers that closed during 2012:
The New Orleans Times-Picayune, a fixture in the Big Easy since 1837, will slash its staff and production schedule, going from 7 to 3 days a week beginning this fall. The body count isn’t known yet, but estimates are that at least a third of the staff will be fired. Those who stay are expected to take pay cuts.
The Times-Picayune, which is owned by Newhouse Newspapers, is apparently taking a page from the Ann Arbor News, another Newhouse paper that cut its frequency to twice-weekly more than three years ago.
The Detroit Media Partnership was the first to eliminate daily frequency in late 2008. Many smaller papers have since quietly cu
t money-losing Monday, Tuesday and Saturday editions.
Additionally, The Birmingham News, Mobile Press-Register and Huntsville Times will also reduce frequency to three days a week. They’ll become part of a “new digitally focused media company” called the Alabama Media Group. Read more on Al.com.
According to Newspaper Layoffs for 2012, there have been more than 1850 layoffs and buyouts have occurred thus far at U.S. newspapers. Here is a list by the same source of closed print newspapers.
Tracing the decline and death of each newspapers is tough. But, a report from the FCC.gov in 2010 on page 41 shows a list of about 212 closed newspapers from 2007-2010 [ it also offers some excellent historical insights as well].
Newspapers across the country have experienced severe cutbacks during the past decade, which has undermined their ability to perform their role as the nation’s watchdog.
Ad revenue dropped nearly 48 percent between 2005 and 2010, and with it the industry’s annual spending on reporting and editing capacity dropped by $1.6 billion, from 2006 to 2009, a reduction of more than 25 percent, according to the Pew Research Center’s
Project for Excellence in Journalism and Rick Edmonds of the Poynter Institute. The number of full-time journalists at daily newspapers fell from a peak of about 56,900 in 1989 to 41,600 in 2010, a level not seen since before the Watergate era.
Below is more information about are some of those newspapers which died in 2009. As you may have noticed, newspapers had a very rough year. But you may not quite appreciate the magnitude of the collapse, just from 2009 alone. ”Today is the end of an era,” said Cynthia Cather Burton, editor of the 104-year-old Clarke Courier.
Just in 2009:
- 105 newspapers have been shuttered.
- more than 10,000 newspaper jobs were lost.
- Print ad sales fell 30% in Q1 ’09.
- 23 of the top 25 newspapers reported circulation declines between 7% and 20%
Here is a list of the dead Newspapers from 2009:
West Bloomfield Eccentric
Troy Eccentric
Rochester Eccentric
Southfield Eccentric
The Carson Times
Douglas Times
Fallon Star Presss
The Daily Reporter
Dennis Pennysaver
Yarmouth Pennysaver
East Bridgewater Star
West Bridgewater Times
Whitman Times
Hanson Town Crier
Plymouth Bulletin
Algonquin Countryside
Cary-Grove Countryside
Wauconda Courier
Arlington Heights Post
Elk Grove Times
Hoffman Estates Review
Palatine Countryside
Rolling Meadows Review
Schaumburg Review Bloomfield Journal
Windsor Journal
Windsor Locks Journal
Coatesville Ledger
Donegal Ledger
Downingtown Ledger
Doylestown Patriot
East Hartford Gazette
Elizabethtown Chronicle
Gazette Advertiser
Germantown Courier
Mount Airy Times Express
Harlem Valley Times
Millbrook Round Table
Voice Ledger
Hyde Park Townsman
The Independent
New Hope Gazette
Northern Star
Oxford Tribune
Parkesburg Post Ledger
Solanco Sun Ledger
Pawling News Chronicle
Petoskey Citizen-Journal
Putnam County Courier
Quakertown Free Press
Register Herald
The Town Meeting
American Fork Citizen
Lehi Free Press
Lone Peak Press
Orem Times
Pleasant Grove Review
Baltimore Examiner
The Bethel Beacon
The Brookfield Journal
The Kent Good Times Dispatch
The Litchfield Enquirer
Big Sky Sun
The Bulletin
The City Star
Dakota Journal
The Democrat
East Iowa Herald
Fort Collins Now
Grapevine Sun
Hardee Sun
The Hershey Chronicle
Hill Country View
Iraan News
Jeanerette Enterprise
The Journal-Messenger
LA City Beat
Lake Elmo Leader
Lake Norman Times
Lakota Journal
Los Gatos Weekender
West San Jose Resident
Maricopa Tribune
McCamey News
The Milford Observer
Ming Pao New York
Ming Pao San Francisco
The Newton Record
Oak Cliff Tribune
The Rockingham News
Rocky Mountain News
Stillwater Courier
Vail Sun
Valley Journal
The Weekly Almanac
Wheeling Countryside
Des Plaines Times
Mount Prospect Times
So what are we to do? Where will the local obituary postings go? Newspapers also supplied huge amounts of revenue to the postal system for shipping. Is it also somewhat linked to the decline of the US Post Office as well? It is indeed having a ripple effect, I am sure. But, I digress.
Is you newspaper dead? What do you do for your news now? I am particularly interested in the older age groups who may not use social media and the Internet so profusely.
Feel free to tell me about your dead newspaper, provide it’s name in the comments section, and what you miss most about print news.
The following state of our media, trends and information comes directly from PEW’s recent 2012 State of the Media Report which also show significant changes in how people get their news.
PEW indicates that 70% of Facebook news consumers get most of their story links from friends and family.
And, only 13% say most links that they follow come from news organizations. On Twitter, however, the mix is more even: 36% say most of the links they follow come from friends and family, 27% say most come from news organizations, and 18% mostly follow links from non-news entities such as think tanks.
By 2015, roughly one out of every five display ad dollars is expected to go to Facebook, according to the same source. So who is still putting advertising in newspapers? Well here are some more interesting facts.
As many as 100 newspapers are expected in coming months to join the roughly 150 dailies that have already moved to some kind of digital subscription model.
In part, newspapers are making this move after witnessing the success of The New York Times, which now has roughly 390,000 online subscribers. The move is also driven by steep drops in ad revenue. Newspaper industry revenue — circulation and advertising combined — has shrunk 43% since 2000.
In 2011, newspapers overall lost roughly $10 in print ad revenue for every new $1 gained online. (That suggests no improvement from what a separate PEJ study of 38 papers found regarding 2010, when the print losses to digital gains in the sample were a $7-to-$1 ratio.)
Furthermore, newsrooms continued to shrink as companies, to remain in the black, felt the need for more rounds of cost reductions. The contemporary newsroom has fewer articles to produce after trims in the physical size of paper and reduction of the space devoted to news. But the remaining editors and reporters are also being stretched further by the need to generate content suitable for smartphones and tablets as well as establishing a social media presence.
This is all in addition to putting out the print paper daily and feeding breaking news to websites. In company management, the shift to outsiders with backgrounds in digital, especially at major companies, was striking.
The CEOs of Gannett (Craig Dubow) and the industry’s largest private company, Media News (William Dean Singleton), stepped aside for health reasons.
New York Times chief executive Janet Robinson retired under pressure late in the year. Associated Press president and chief executive Tom Curley announced early in 2012 that he would be retiring, too. During the course of the year, the top editor’s job turned over at The New York Times, USA Today, The Los Angeles Times and a host of metros.
Newspapers began changing hands again in late 2011. The trend of private equity owners gaining control through bankruptcy proceedings continues to grow and they tend to take an aggressive approach to digital transition. The most high-profile example is John Paton, the chief executive backed by Alden Global Capital, who is pursuing a “digital-first” strategy at the Journal Register and MediaNews Group papers.The biggest of the private equity takeovers will come when Tribune Company bankruptcy proceedings, now in their fourth year, conclude.
Probably the biggest transaction in 2011 was the $143 million sale of The New York Times’ 16-paper region group to Halifax Media, a company formed two years ago to buy The Daytona Beach News-Journal. The Times had assembled the papers and run them at high profit margins in the 1970s and 1980s to balance out business ups and downs at its flagship paper. Lately, the regional group was shedding revenue faster than The New York Times itself, so the company chose to sell the papers and invest the proceeds in digital development.
Important footnotes to read more about this overall topic.
- comScore. “Digital Omnivores: How Tablets, Smartphones and Connected Devices Are Changing U.S. Digital Media Consumption Habits.” Subscriber-access only at www.comscore.com. October 2011.
- eMarketer. “Facebook’s US User Growth Slows but Twitter Sees Double-Digit Gains.” March 5, 2012.
- Olmstead, Kenny; Mitchell, Amy, and Rosenstiel, Tom. “Navigating News Online: Where People Go, How They Get There and What Lures Them Away.” Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. May 9, 2011.
- “Search Engine Use 2012.” Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project. March 9, 2012.
- “The Facebook Fascination on Social Media.” Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. Feb. 2, 2012.
I for one, will miss print news both from a sniff and scratch standpoint but also because three generations in my family have been associated with news and journalism in one way or another. First with my grandmother who was a published philatelic journalist, my father wrote for his school newspaper, and I have written and published news both locally and nationally.
Thanks for reading!
Types of Blogs, Blog Resources, List of 200 Blogging Sites & Platforms
There are SO many types of blogs these days. They range from free public blogs to paid blog enterprise platforms as well as personal blogs, corporate and organizational blogs, and even blogs by genre or topic. For example, there are blogs by topic such as environmental blogs.
Blogging is a broad topic, especially if one is trying to wade through the forest to get to trees and it could be daunting. I hope this post sheds some light on the subject. With so many choices, I would love to hear from you, please tell me about your favorite blog and why?
The following list provided by Greenedia provide links to popular environmental subtopics:
All Blogs | Alternative Energy | Batteries | Biodiesel | Biofuels | Carbon |Cleantech | Conservation | Electric Vehicles | Energy Efficiency | Energy Policy | Energy Prices | Environmental Economics | Environmentalism | Ethanol | Fuel Cells | Geothermal Energy | Global Warming & Climate Change | Green Asia | Green Building | Green Business | Green Canada | Green Europe | Green Politics | Green Venture Capital | Hybrid Cars & Trucks | Hydro Energy | Incentives & Rebates | LEED Building | Nuclear Energy | Peak Oil |Renewable Energy | Research and Studies | Solar Energy | Stocks & Investing |Sustainable Development | Wave and Tidal Power | Wind Energy.
I am providing a link to a cool environmental blog and website which are combined as an initiative of the Montgomery County, MD, Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). This blog is supported by several County departments and agencies. The website and blog help County residents find local programs, services, resources and answers to en environmental questions in one place. It is written by Maryland’s Montgomery County Government.
The following list below provides other worthy blogs which cover a broad range of select environmental topics (I am sure there are more, please let me know if you have some you like):
- HuffPost Green, has bolstered its editorial staff and original content
- Time’sEcocentric, does a good job covering business and energy
- RealClimate’s commentary, a blog written by working climate scientists
- Civil Eats, if food is your thing
- Streetsblog, which covers transportation and planning
- Grist
- Treehugger
- OnEarth Blog
- The Guardian: Environment Blog
- Discovery News: Earth
- High Country News: The Goat
- The Cleanest Line
- The New York Times: Dot Earth
- Mother Jones: Blue Marble
- Yale Environment 360
- The New York Times: Green
There are also blogs by media type and even blogs comprised of videos which are called vlogs. And, blogs comprising of just links is called a linklog, a site containing a portfolio of sketches is called a sketchblog or one comprising photos is called a photoblog. There are blogs with shorter posts and mixed media types are called tumblelogs. And least but not last, there are blogs which are written on typewriters and then scanned which are called typecast or typecast blogs; see typecasting (blogging).
There is also a rare type of blog hosted on the Gopher Protocol is known as a Phlog.
Blogs can also be defined by which type of device is used to compose it. For example, a blog written by a mobile device like a mobile phone or PDA or moblog. One early blog was a Wearable Wireless Webcam, an online shared diary of a person’s personal life combining text, video, and pictures transmitted live from a wearable computer and EyeTap device to a web site. This practice of semi-automated blogging with live video together with text was referred to as sousveillance. Such journals have been used as evidence in legal matters.
- Reverse blogs
A Reverse Blog is composed by its users rather than a single blogger. This system has the characteristics of a blog, and the writing of several authors. These can be written by several contributing authors on a topic, or opened up for anyone to write.
If you are looking for more information and resources try some of the links below?
- More about the history of blogging in greater detail on Wikipedia.
- Check out the opensource resources at wikimatrix.org
- Technorati’s Top 100 blogs to keep up
- Blog Search Engines:
- BlogSearch Engine.org
- Amatomu
- IceRocket (Defunct)
- Regator
- Technorati
- Google Blog Search
Directly below are 13 free blog sites to checkout if you are thinking about starting your own blog. And finally, below the list of the 13 free blogs, is a much longer list of about 200 blog sites and blogging platforms. I have left out the URL links to these, so you will need to just copy and paste any that interest you into your Internet browser.
1) LiveJournal
2) Busy Thumbs
3) WordPress
4) Tublr
5) Blogger
6) Edublogs
7) Open Diary
8) TravelPod
9) Posterous
10) Weebly
11) On sugar
12) Text Pattern
13) Serendipity
And, finally here is a list of some 220+ Blogging Platforms:
- Typepad.com
- Blog.com
- Yahoo 360 // Service Discontinued
- Freevlog.org
- Multiply.com
- Windows Live Spaces // Service Discontinued
- Xanga.com
- Netcipia.com
- Weebly.com
- Soulcast.com
- Journalfen.net
- Blogabond.com
- Blogs.bigadda.com // Indian Service
- Blog.co.in // Indian Service
- Perfspot.com // Indian Service
- Blogs.rediff.com
- Hubpages.com
- Opera Community
- vox.com
- 9rules.com
- newsisfree.com
- peopleconnection.aol.com
- members.freewebs.com
- bravenet.com
- angelfire.lycos.com
- boingboing.net
- snap.com
- squarespace.com
- diaryland.com
- blog-city.com
- zefrank.com
- antville.org
- blogher.org
- blogrankings.com
- textamerica.com
- weblogs.us
- bloghub.com
- portal.eatonweb.com
- blogsearchengine.com
- blogowogo.com
- bloghi.comweblogger.com
- blogrox.com
- inknoise.com
- bloggar.cjb.net
- blogsome.com
- salon.com/blog
- fotopages.com
- blogdrive.com
- twoday.net
- blogspirit.com/en
- jaiku.com
- blogs.botw.org
- weebly.com
- ziki.com
- alivedirectory.com
- blogger.de
- pitas.com
- blog.co.uk
- insanejournal.com
- blogharbor.com
- terapad.com
- motime.com
- easyjournal.com
- findory.com
- 20six.co.uk
- myblogvoice.com
- weblogalot.com
- viddyou.com
- deadjournal.com
- lsblogs.com
- blog.ca
- danchan.com/weblog
- ourstory.com
- supersized.org
- etribes.com
- 21publish.com
- thespoke.net
- iseekblog.com
- blogates.com
- loudblog.com
- upsaid.com
- writetomyblog.com
- openserving.com
- beanrocket.com
- blogslive.net
- bloki.com
- botablog.com
- thumblogger.com
- zorpia.com
- maktoobblog.com
- zoomshare.com
- memebot.com
- tabulas.com
- snapvine.com/blog
- weblog.ro
- blogster.com
- tblog.com
- blurty.com
- ebloggy.com
- today.com
- clearblogs.com
- aeonity.com
- blognow.com.au
- bloghoster.net
- weblog.com
- thoughts.com
- blogr.com
- alkablog.com
- shoutpost.com
- 2pt.net
- blogeasy.com
- mydeardiary.com
- blogstudio.com
- okayblog.net
- deardiary.net
- seo-blog.org
- blogupper.com
- phlog.net
- blogdog.com
- wikyblog.com
- globenotes.com
- my-journal.com
- blogladder.com
- livelyblog.com
- blogs.xanco.com
- atom5.com
- blogtastic.com
- johndoe.org
- journalfiend.com
- jeeran.com/blogs
- avblog.userplane.com
- blogtv.com
- blogs.skaffe.com
- getjealous.com
- blogsavy.com
- blogit.com/Blogs
- journalhome.com
- conservablogs.com
- hosting365.com
- my-diary.org
- blogetery.com
- newblog.com
- bloxster.net
- blogyx.com
- manhattanservice.com
- dakotablogs.com
- blogtext.org
- blogmyway.org
- dragid.com
- blogadr.com
- outblogger.com
- blogbeee.com
- iuplog.com
- blogiversity.org
- blogthing.com
- blogomonster.com
- egoweblog.com
- myblog.net
- inube.com
- journalhub.com
- blogcheese.com
- wordcountjournal.com
- livelogcity.com
- blogbud.com
- blogcityusa.com
- theblog.cc
- reger.com
- blogpod.com
- planet-travels.com
- talkingforest.com
- crablog.com
- tooum.com
- bahraichblogs.com
- rememory.com
- monkee.biz
- blog-dir.blogspot.com
- myitblog.com
- xlogz.com
- shoutpost.com
- hyperblogs.net
- blogsarena.com
- blogsboom.com
- nowblogging.net
- zeroblogs.com
- eblogger.com
- bloty.com
- theblogs.net
- www2.globbo.org
- blogspex.com
- blogisme.com
- pagebuildr.com
- blogmole.com
- shinyblogs.com
- myhappyblog.com
- webcamfreeblog.com
- speedytown.com
- tennerblog.com
- avatale.com
- lonelymind.com
- knowwizard.com
- blogonfly.com
- blogema.org
- ebzzo.com
- jaoblogs.com
- blog.allyouwant.cn
- perfectfreewebhosting.com
- free-blog-site.com
- greatestjournal.com
- mytypes.com
- buddypress.org
- mindsay.com
- freewebs.com
- pagebuildr.com
The Power of Good News; One Person at a Time.
Well, yesterday I heard a story by word of mouth from a friend (about 15 miles away in Germantown, Maryland) where an 86 a year old woman had walked to the big box food store in the 100 degree heat to buy some food and ice as she was out of her small ration of food which she had kept on ice in little cooler which contained bologna and cheese for sandwiches.
More critically, no one, not a single person had checked in on her and she had no family in the area. She mentioned to the deli worker that there were a lot of elderly in her neighborhood. She did not have any AC. She did not own a car anymore. She did not have a cell phone. She did not have the Internet. And, she had survived the intense 100 degree weather by sitting in her doorway step to catch a little breeze when it came through.
My friend could not leave her job with 35 people in line buying food in the aftermath of the storms and electrical outages, but she gave her personal phone number-just encase she needed anything-at any time. The elderly woman then walked back home, in the 100 plus degree weather.
News about Flurry: New Tool to Track Mobile Ad Campaign Storm
Flurry is releasing a new tool to better track mobile ad campaigns http://nie.mn/KPB3Tx. Thx to @NiemanLab. RT
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Sincerely,
Unlimited PR & Associates, LLC
Twitter.com/Unlimitedpr | Website: www.unlimitedpr.net
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Facebook Launches WordPress Tool
Facebook Launches WordPress Tool, Makes Blogging More Social. Add of blog content to FB in one click http://ping.fm/YOfso
Thanks for reading my blog about public communication.
Sincerely,
Unlimited PR & Associates, LLC
Twitter.com/Unlimitedpr | Website: www.unlimitedpr.net
- Fact sheet at http://bit.ly/sqGrjB
- Company Background http://bit.ly/rpnZXE.
- Our NAICs codes at http://bit.ly/zWfacZ
Let’s chat about how I can help your business communication needs or send a personal request for business assistance & more info @ http://bit.ly/oqcoE9
The Penny Press in France & Le Petite Journal Illustre
It has been unseasonably cold and rainy the past couple of days, so I thought I would tackle a little history project I have wanted to write about regarding a particular little penny press newspaper.
As of January 2012, The New York Times raised its daily price to $2.50! Think back to the penny press at the turn of the last century, have you ever wondered what such a paper would cost today, inflation adjusted? Answer: a quarter (Source Article: (Jeff Jarvis). The picture to the left is a copy of an original penny press newspaper which I own and bought in the south of France, in 1994. I had just completed my public relations degree and was studying the French language in Aix-en Provence. At the time, I considered not bringing the two antique newspapers with me because I and my two children were carrying backpacks and only one small rolling bag. I was afraid of damaging it on the flight back to the United States. I am so glad that I chose to hand carry it and it survived.
In the 1880′s, this newspaper only cost a penny! The original historic art print alone is priceless, in my humble opinion. Journalism has been a career thread which has run in our family, but I did not know that when I started my course work. I only learned of it later from my father once I began taking journalism courses during the second year during my undergraduate work. My grandmother, Edith Faulstich was a Philatelic journalist. Below is a short list regarding some of her writing history:
1)‘Newark Sunday News’ for 26 year (Nov. 24, 1946–1972)
2)‘The Record”, Hackensack, New Jersey ( 1961–1966)
3) ‘Bergen Evening Record” (January 16, 1922 -Sept 14, 1968)
Faulstich was also editor of: (see publication source addresses here)
4) ‘Postal History Journal’ from May 1957 (Vol.1. No.1) to 1967
5) ‘Western Stamp Collector’
6)‘Covers’, and
7)‘The Essay-Proof Journal’
But, I digress a bit. As this is post is about this specific Penny Press newspaper from France.
The ” Little Diary ”is one of the oldest newspapers in France. It began publication in 1863 and the creation should be considered as one of the events most deeply embedded into the life of Parisians of yesteryear. In the history of the press, that is more that a mere episode, that is the memorable date of a revolution, not only in journalism but in social manners.
The present generation can not imagine what newspaper industry was like before the appearance of the five cent newspaper. This popular newspaper brought it within the reach of every budget in France. But, it was also during a time when the press did not enjoy any freedom of the Press.
Legislators had made it suspicious and was newspapers were relegated extensively. The Government of the day placed heavy bonds; censorship, jealous watching of publishers -very closely, and with the slightest hint of criticism, the slightest allusion to political bashing, heavy fines fell upon the publisher as thick as hail; to recidivism, that was the prohibition of the times. The prohibition of free speech, in France.
As a result it is enough to say that the masses of people, workers, employees, petty bourgeois were condemned not to read newspapers. The wealthy themselves are looked at twice before they subscribed to a newspaper. Some would only read the newspaper reading room, on the others’ subscriptions when they heard of their neighbors taking out a subscription to one of the largest newspapers of Paris.
Millaud had, by way of creating the Little Diary, other intentions. Rather, to give each person an every day look at life, an echo of national life: information, news story, inspired by the chronic current events, talks about the theater, variety, novels, but no politics! The Government Policy, that was then certain death. And news had to live. The Diary lived indeed.
~ Jean Lecocq. (Almanac 1940)
Le Petit Journal (Journal was sold for a penny: 5 centimes) on 1-2-1863 was created by Moses (said Polydore) Millaud, non-political and therefore not stamped, at half-size, consisting originally of four pages, eight pages as of 1898 and six in 1901.
The aim was to attract the maximum number of subscriptions and to attract advertising. The dominant strategy was to sell at the lowest possible price. In 1863, Moses Polydore Millaud widely publicized “Le Petit Journal” and is the first French newspaper whose strategy was to create access based on the sensational. The selling price was also low in order to make it a popular newspaper, for everyone.
For failing to pay the stamp (5 cents per issue) that made the business impossible, the newspaper was apolitical. The authorities of the Second Empire favored the development of this cheap sheet and its competitors.
After September 4, 1870, with the stamp removed, Le Petit Journal was able to talk politics.
Despite some crises – in 1870, more than 400,000 copies were sold, and in 1892, one million copies.
Girardin took control in 1873. In 1937, it drew more than 150,000 copies when it became the organ of the Social français.
Replié in Clermont-Ferrand in June 1940, Le Petit Journal lived, poorly, until 1944, during which time he/it received a monthly grant from the Vichy government. Schedules of weekly publications, the most famous was his Supplement illustrated in color, whose images offered a picturesque example of the sights and popular ideology of the century.
The success of this penny newspaper caused a surge in a new type of periodicals (eg the Petit Parisien. Le Petit Parisien founded by Louis Andrieux, 1879, the first No. 16-10-1870.
The press has, throughout of 19 th century, evolved according to its industries and new technical possibilities. After the 1881 Act and during the 1890s, the press was still characterized by diversity, each with its French newspaper owner.
At the end of the century, the ground was laid, for the crisis that will soon shake the country: newspapers become a real power of the people.
Printed on the rotary machine chrono-type Marinoni
The Diary, in those heroic days, had not his print to it. No one knew yet that a single printing process: the draw that flat n ‘impressed that a copy of four pages at once and, because of the slowness s’ did the work, inevitably it restricted the paper’s circulation. Readers soon answered so many of the calls, that the printing Serrière declared himself unable to drasw enough alone.
It was therefore necessary to provide for the best merchants at the time, and use multiple printers. However, printing at that time, was not a free industry. We had to open one, buy a patent, and patents, whose numbers were limited, were in the hands of the printers who guarded them jealously and shared customers by various specialties: Books, newspapers, catalogs, paperwork , etc.. Newspaper printing was grouped around the Grange-boat-and growing. One of the busiest was the printing Schiller, 10 and 11, Faubourg Montmartre: it was responsible for some of the copies of Diary.
The First Rotary Press
Hippolyte Marinoni could have been, in the words then of a spiritual writer, “a romantic hero for his own newspaper” The son of a policeman of Corsican origin, he had in his childhood, kept cattle. And, he was far from being ashamed of his humble origin. Marinoni was a laborer in a factory of hand presses and type-founder.
Finally, in 1872, he realized the extraordinary invention of the rotary press with automatic feeder and continuous paper, regularly pulling 40,000 copies per hour. Some years after, he built the great Marinoni rotary multicolor printing press, which churned out 20,000 copies from a single shot in six colors, which were printed as illustrated publications, succédanées of Petite Journal, including the Illustrated Diary , which were hand drawn, once a week, and printed up to twelve hundred thousand copies.
History of How the “Little Illustrated Journal” was Published
(Imperfectly Translated from French). The Department of this newspaper asked its readers to stay in close communion and this wish was fulfilled for a longtime as a result of the huge number of letters received, offering approval and very sincere encouragement. Therefore, we thought it would be nice to keep the paper alive, showing a little of thier lives, and the succession of different yet consistent efforts, necessary for the manufacture of a newspaper, and to penetrate deep Behind the Scenes – dare I say – of a large illustrated weekly like ours.
Here, as elsewhere, the division of labor was required. Above all, who is the Director, based on experience and knowledge to satisfy the public, giving directions to follow and supervise its execution. Under him, the writing service, editor, general secretary, implements and oversaw that her designs are shown. Thus, each week, the Director took care of the editorial materials, which would form the number for the following week. These materials were of two kinds: first, what is known in terms of the business, the “copy”, that is to say, articles and stories, then the illustrations, including drawings and photographs.
It was very delicate work back then, not only because it had to please the greatest number of readers, because everyone did not have the same tastes, but also because it had to be interesting to follow the news. News was and still is fleeting. What is interesting one day may no longer be the week after. But the manufacture of a weekly is infinitely longer than a day. We may at any time be too late.
The materials were gathered into the hands of the editor. It then went immediately to the internal executing agencies. The “copy” first, was sent to he service composition without review. Previously, they couldn’t ignore it, because they knew that the composition of type had to be done by hand. The characters, distributed into the type compartments with lead ”breaks”, for each and every line of news which was laid out one by one, all by hand by a worker who formed lines. It was very time consuming labor.
”Today”, much has been simplified and enables this work to be completed by using machines called linotypes. These have a linotype keyboard not unlike that of typewriters. Just to the operator – which is often an operator – to press each key on the keyboard so that the matrix of the corresponding letter comes down in a compartment intended for receiving. When the line is complete, a single shot lever activates the machine. The set of matrices is shown in the orifice of a home with molten lead. The result is a small tablet which bears on one of its edges, the embossed characters of the entire line. Matrices are automatically removed and distributed into the store from which they emerge, again, then the operator presses the corresponding key.
Just as there were typists more skillful than others, there were also more skilled operators. On average, a good operator dialed 6,000 letters, 150 lines per hour.
The picture to the left is titled” Component of youth operators for creating newspaper articles sitting at the linotype machine”
When an entire article or a story was composed, we made a test by passing over the surface of the thick ink, and then laying on top of it a sheet of paper and hitting it with a big brush. The test thus obtained wass assigned to a grader, who read the test “copy” and pointed out errors in the composition. Errors were corrected to the linotype by redoing the entire line.
Only the titles were still made with movable type, one by one by hand. It was the beginning of the use of making specialized headlines.
***
Meanwhile, the illustrations are processed by the photo etching. The illustrations were created in black ink and photographs are reproduced by a process, common in those days, whose origins date back to Talbot’s invention in 1852 .
For the longest time, it’ is true that we only knew of the woodcut pictures which were only created and obtained by arduous manual labor from an artist, sculpting virtually on a board of boxwood and engraving it, chiseling the art worked well. Thanks to an ingenious use of photography, they mechanically reproduced art on zinc or copper plates for the illustrations for the newspaper.
The process is similar, though more delicate and complicated for large color compositions, which were located on the first and last page of the Illustrated Diary. Note, however, we had a need to get as many pictures as there were colors in the universe. For black, blue, yellow and red, that’s four shots that would be later set on the press and on which turned the white paper into colorful art. Four colors, you say! But there were more than four colors in the prints that illustrated the newspaper? No doubt, but the green is obtained by superposition of blue and yellow and other colors by layering the same kind.
***
And they met the “copy” and illustrations clichés. Then begins the work of layout. This job runs on large tables that, for a very old tradition, we continue to call “home plate”. Under the supervision of Secretary of writing which indicates the position of articles and photographs, these are arranged in forms or large cast iron frames that tightly clasp. When this work is completed, it is, the content of each form, a race named special “morass.” The morasses are revised by the corrector, which seeks to track the latest faults are forgotten or layout errors.Then the editor examines in turn and, if it has no comment to make, given the right to shoot.
If we drew on hardware platforms, we could immediately bring these forms to the printer. But everyone knows that more these days, are used for rotating the huge prints of the great modern newspapers. Transformative work is still needed. He runs to the stereotype. There, introduced forms are placed in a special machine that molds them on a print taken by a kind of wide paper carton hurry. This blank, it curves to give the exact shape corresponding to the rotating rollers. Finally, each blank, and curved, is used to make one or more curved, and it is these images, the result of a sequence of transformations, which will finally get the newspaper.
The stereotype where the forms are used to make cylindrical clichés, is noted to the right. Now, this is the last part of whee the job execution begins on one of those admirable rotating machines in which the invention is due to Hippolyte Marinoni, both creator of modern printing and for many years director of the Petit Journal.
Under the orders of the chief driver, snapshots from the stereotype are set on the rollers of the machine and the big roll of paper begins to unfold its leaves through the endless maze of wheels, connecting rods and countless bodies of steel.
Despite the appearance, start-up demand meticulous care. Because of the four different inks used for color prints, you must engage in a very delicate work of identification. We must also adjust the pressure on the plates and the arrival of the inks so that the text is neither too gray or too dark. Finally everything is ready, after many hours of experience and tests. The great “roto” starts to devour the paper at full speed and make it in the form of copies printed, folded, cut, such that we can finally see, a few days later, in depositories and in newsagents all over France.
It will be appreciated by comparing two numbers, the benefits of rotary flat on the machine, it once drew an average of 2,000 sheets per day. The rotary Illustrated Diary , though less rapid than that of a newspaper, printed only in black, delivers 10,000 copies per hour. - R
The presses were used every week to get the ‘Petit Journal Illustrated and printed for circulation”
Thanks for reading about the history of this newspaper from 1894. If you have any tidbits of history to add or comments about the paper, or the history of the penny press I would welcome insights and additional information.
Now, onto finding out the history of my other little French newspaper printed March 1891, Le Soleil du Dimanche, all 16 pages!
Where to Find Archives of Newspapers (Online)
How to Find Old Newspapers Online
With the impending death of paper, U.S. Post Offices and the decline of Newspapers, I have begun performing some preliminary research regarding one of two French newspapers I bought in a little book store in the south of France during my study abroad in 1994. I am beginning with “Le Soleil du Dimanche.” It is rather difficult learn anything about the history of this illustrative journal. I came across a list of newspaper resources and thought it might be useful to others. Once I find the scoop on this little 16 pager and Le Petite Journal, both printed in March 1891.
The Most Requested Newspapers
• The Herald Sun • The London Times • The NY Times • NC State Library Newspaper Project • The Raleigh News & Observer • USA Today • The Wall Street Journal • The Washington Post
North Carolina Community Newspapers
• NC Community Newspapers • America’s Newspapers: NC
Lists of Online Newspapers Worldwide
- 17th-18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers - Provides full text access to the British Library’s collection of the newspapers, pamphlets, books gathered by Reverend Charles Burney (1757-1817).
- 19th Century British Library Newspapers Collection - Contains full runs of newspapers specially selected to best represent nineteenth-century Britain.
- 19th Century U.S. Newspapers - Access to approximately 500 U.S. newspapers, published between 1800 and 1900.
- Adams Papers Digital Edition - The database comprises John Adams’s complete diaries, selected legal papers, and the ongoing series of family correspondence and state papers.
- Africa-Wide NiPAD - Provides multi-disciplinary coverage about African including politics, history, economics, business, mining, development, social issues, anthropology, natural history, literature, language, law, music and much more.
- African American Newspapers - Includes over 200 African-American newspapers, arranged by state.
- Alternative Press Index - Alternative Press Index Archive (APIA) is a bibliographic database of journal, newspaper, and magazine articles from over 700 international alternative, radical, and left periodicals.
- America’s Historical Newspapers, 1690-1922 - America’s Historical Newspapers allows users to search U.S. historical papers published between 1690 and 1922, including titles from all 50 states.
- America’s Newspapers: North Carolina - A quick link to the NC section of America’s Newspapers.
- Atlanta Constitution (1868-1939) - Offers full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue.
- Black Studies Center - Comprised of several cross-searchable component databases, including the International Index to Black Periodicals and historical black newspapers.
- Canadian Newsstand - This collection includes 21 national and leading regional newspapers, including: The Globe and Mail, National Post, Montreal Gazette, Ottawa Citizen, etc.
- Chicago Tribune (1849-1986)
- Factiva - Provides updated global information and news from major newspapers and business journals.
- Gallica Project on French Newspapers - Allows access to full text for the following French newspapers: Le Figaro and son supplement litteraire, Le Temps, La Croix, L’Humanite, La Presse, Le Journal des debats, Ouest-Eclair (editions de Rennes, Caen et Nantes).
- Guardian and The Observer - The Guardian (1821-2003) and its sister paper, The Observer (1791-2003) provide online access to facts, firsthand accounts, and opinions of the day about the most significant and fascinating political, business, sports, literary, and entertainment events from the past 200 years.
- Illustrated London News Historical Archive - Provides access to the entire run of the Illustrated London News from its first publication on 14 May 1842 to its last in 2003.
- Informe - Contains the full text of popular magazines, academic journals and selected newspaper articles in Spanish.
- InfoTrac Newsstand - provides indexing and full-text articles from major U.S. regional, national and local newspapers as well as leading titles from around the world.
- Kidon Media Link - Newspapers, periodicals and other media sources from around the world. Every country has its own integrated page. There are no separate pages for newspapers, magazines, television, radio and news agencies.
- Latin American Newsstand - Complete contents from over 35 full text Latin American newspaper titles in Spanish and Portuguese, with some additional content in English. Most coverage starts with 2005, though some go back to 1995.
- Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe - Provides full text access to a wide range of U.S. and international newspapers, radio and television transcripts. Covers general, business and legal information sources. Lexis-Nexis is available for the Duke Community only through this link.
- Los Angeles Times
- National Index to Chinese Newspapers & Periodicals - This is an index database of about 18,000 Chinese newspapers and periodicals published 1833-1949.
- NC Newspapers Online - It includes 23,483 digital images of papers dating from 1752 to the 1890s, including the collection of 18th century newspapers the State Archives has on microfilm. Included are the North Carolina Gazette (New Bern: April 14, 1775), various newspapers from Edenton (1787-1801), Fayetteville (1798-1795), Hillsboro (1786), New Bern (1751-1804), and Wilmington (1765-1816). In addition, the project includes the full run of two politically opposed newspapers from Salisbury, the Carolina Watchman (1832-1898) and The Western Carolinian (1820-1844). Finally, the project also includes three lesson plans, derived from these newspapers, entitled Idealized Motherhood vs. the Realities of Mother hood in Antebellum North Carolina; Teaching About Slavery Through Newspaper Advertisements; and “A Female Raid” in 1863, or Using Newspaper Coverage to Learn More About North Carolina’s Civil War Home Front.
- New York Times Book Review Archives - This is a full text archive of book reviews published in the New York Times since 1980. It covers over 50,000 books and authors, in reviews as well as in news and interviews. This database is listed on the Book Reviews subject list.
- News & Observer, 1991-Present; News & Observer, 2004-Present - NCLive now offers web access to full text articles from the Raleigh News & Observer through a database called InfoTrac Custom Newspapers. The News & Observer is covered from 1991 to the present.
- Newspaperindex.com - Newspapers and Front Pages in all countries.
- Newspaper Source - Contains selected full text articles from over 140 regional U.S. newspapers, several international newspapers, newswires, and the Christian Science Monitor. The emphasis is business-related articles, although articles about national and international news events are also included.
- North Carolina Periodicals Index - Produced by the Joyner Library at ECU, this free database provides indexing of articles from over 40 periodicals published in NC. Most of these periodicals are not covered by other indexes or databases. The Triangle’s “Independent Weekly” is one example.
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers - New York Times, full text, from 1851 to three years before the current date.
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Black Newspapers - Offers primary source material for the study of American history and African-American culture, history, politics, and the arts.
- Regional Business News - A collection of business journals, newspapers and news wires covering all metropolitan and rural areas within the U.S.
- Russian National Bibliography - allows users to digitally search the Russian Book Chamber’s (Knizhnaia palata) national bibliographies for citations from books, newspapers, journals, dissertation abstracts, musical scores, and maps.
- SRDS Media Solutions - Provides advertising media rates and advertiser data through its coverage of traditional media – such as magazines, newspapers, television, direct marketing, and radio – as well as online sources.
- Struggles for Freedom in Southern Africa - collection consists of more than 180,000 pages of documents and images, including periodicals, nationalist publications, records of colonial government commissions, local newspaper reports, personal papers, correspondence, UN documents, out-of-print and other particularly relevant books, oral testimonies, life histories, and speeches.
- Taiwan Nichinichi Shinpo - Keyword searching and full text of official newspaper of Taiwan during the Japanese colonial period, including both Japanese (1898.5 – 1944.3) and Chinese (1905.7 – 1911.11) editions.
- The Times Digital Archive, 1785-1985 - Provides full text access to The Times (London). The full newspaper (including advertisements and illustrations) is given with full-page or specific article access, along with a facsimile (PDF) version.
- Times of India - The Times of India (1838-2001) offers full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue.
- Universal Database of Central Russian Newspapers - A full-text database of over 40 newspapers from Russia, including some English-language publications. (Visual material like photos, graphs, and drawings are not included.) Accessible in English or Russian.
- Universal Databases - This interface provides a unified search engine for several of the Eastview Universal databases: Russian Central Newspapers (UDB-COM), Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press (UDB-CD), Social Sciences & Humanities (UDB-EDU), Voprosy istorii: Complete Collection (UDB-VI), and Voprosy literatury: Complete Collection (UDB-VL).
- Waterloo Directory of English Newspapers and Periodicals, 1800-1900 - A subject-inclusive, language-inclusive bibliography of newspapers and periodicals from Victorian England . Includes 6 alphabetical indexes: Title, Issuing body, People, Town, County, and Subject. Also included are titles in any language, published during any part of their life-span in England between January 1, 1800 and December 31, 1900.
- World News Connection - A fee-based service of the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) which provides translations by FBIS and JPRS of non-English newspapers, speeches, journals, and some media broadcasts from foreign countries. Translations are added within 24–72 hours of original broadcast/publication, and the database goes back to 2003. Some non-U.S. English-language news sources are also included.
- World Newspaper Archive - A fully searchable collection of historical newspapers from around the globe.
- Yomiuri Newspaper, 1986- - Includes full text of Yomiuri shinbun (from Sept. 1986- to the present, with local editions beginning in Dec. 1986); along with the English edition: the Daily Yomiuri (Sept. 1989- to the present), both searchable by article, keyword, subject category, and issue.
