Economist to put archive online

Economist to put archive online
By Stephen Brook, press correspondent
Thursday October 18, 2007
MediaGuardian.co.uk


Economist: its archive will contain more than 600,000 pages

More than 160 years of articles from the Economist are set to become available online with the launch of The Economist Historical Archive 1843-2003.
The archive will contain more than 600,000 pages of the weekly magazine's reporting and analysis.

It is a joint project between Gale - part of Cengage Learning - and the Economist.

"The Economist Historical Archive is more than a database - it is a remarkable record of the most significant world events over the past 160 years through the unbiased, probing eyes of the Economist," said John Micklethwait, the magazine's editor-in-chief.

The magazine, which has a worldwide print circulation of more than 1.2m, hopes to target educational institutions, public libraries, government organisations, corporations and financial institutions.

Users can search or browse by issue and date, or use more advanced search options such as sections of the paper, article type or article title.

Mark Holland, publishing director at Cengage Learning, said: "The Economist Historical Archive 1843-2003 is set to revolutionise the way institutions and educationalists conduct research.

"As mediums such as the internet become ever more advanced, it is imperative that the media evolves through digitisation to support 21st Century learning."

Preview trials of the archive are available and the full archive will be available via subscription in December.

Its website, Economist.com offers readers free access to content under one year old.

The Guardian and Observer newspapers recently announced they would make every edition available via a newly launched online digital archive. The first phase of the Guardian News & Media archive, containing the Guardian from 1821 to 1975 and the Observer from 1900 to 1975, will launch on November 3.

Annual subscriptions for the archive, which is not being offered to individuals, start from £1,500 for small academic institutions but prices vary depending on the type and size of the organisation.