Digitizing Old Newspapers: To Preserve History & Past Events

Old newspapers contain valuable historical data. If you are the owner of a newspaper agency or library, you may like to scan and convert this data into digital formats.

All you have to do is to ensure that the scan is of good quality as the newspapers are made up of thin paper. They are not made with preservation in mind.

Newspapers are developed with groundwood or mechanical wood pulp paper that contains impurities and tends to become discolored, brittle, and acidic over time. Newspaper pages are designed to accommodate black and white and colored text along with images. Scanning these papers is a challenge.

Here in this post, we are discussing the methods by which we can preserve historical newspapers and old photos contained in them in digital formats.

Some years back historical newspapers were converted into microfilms. But it was costly and again not a feasible method.

As the technology grew, the high-quality overhead scanners to scan the entire newspaper in one go modified the digitization process. Now newspaper digitization is done using electronic publishing which will be the ultimate way to store data on a virtual platform.

How can newspapers survive in the digital age?

The trend of going to libraries and reading the latest news, articles, and other material has faded. Today, the masses feel comfortable sitting on their couch and doing the digital reading( reading on a laptop or smartphone.

Let’s accept the fact,” Newspapers are dying”. But we can quickly turn the dice and go for old newspaper scanning service. The historical newspapers are converted into digital images and then stored in PDF or TIFF formats.

For a long time, newspapers have chased audiences and advertisers to the Web and other digital platforms, where they are finding strong growth. Scanning the old newspapers and creating the archives of the same for readers is the latest trend. But the transition has to be smooth and effective

The 4 major strategies to continue news publishing are:

Go Online for News Publishing

We must consider the big revenue generated by the print ads. A publishing house must plan the same or bigger revenue from the digital ads. To do so, faster and attractive digital copies are required.

A new study released by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism examines the difficult transition of newspapers.. For its study, “The Search for a New Business Model,” the Pew Center obtained detailed financial and other data from newspapers that usually is kept private, in exchange for granting the companies anonymity.

The study revealed that newspaper reading would be done online now and more than 60% of people have already developed a habit of online reading. The designing tools and techniques help in developing the interest of readers.

There are many user-friendly options offered by newspaper agencies. Online publishing is a challenging task but one of the winning strategies to cash in across the digital realm:

Take Benefits of Indexing

Scanning is essential but storage of digital copies using an effective document management system is equally important. The digital copies can be stored in different file formats such as PDF, TIFF, etc. Here the newspaper agencies must take a smart decision for choosing a reliable scanning agency.

An efficient agency that can do the indexing and create the searchable copies of newspapers. It would be a great benefit for the libraries and publishers.

Designing of Digital Copies

The content representation matters. Of course, designing an online newspaper is different from actual printed copies. But a swift change in the working culture of the newspaper agencies can create a big difference.

The agencies have to explore the ways to display ads, editorials, articles, newspaper clippings, images, etc. considering graphics while printing a digital paper.

Even when we are scanning old newspapers, the image and content positioning needs to be done. The editing tools help us to do it accurately.

So, if you are digitizing your collection of newspapers, ensure to hire a company that has a skilled team to do that.

Process of Scanning Newspapers

The scanning process helps to produce fine-quality digital copies. The selection of a good scanner like a flatbed scanner makes the difference. In some cases, if the papers are crumbled and have poor quality, initial preparation is required.

The companies who are regularly doing newspaper digital conversion can help to achieve readable electronic copies. A high-resolution scanner ( 400–600 dpi ) is normally used for thin paper scanning.

Digital formats such as JPEG, TIFF, or PDF are then used to store the images. The scanned newspapers are then indexed and categorized. To create full-text searchable files, optical Character Recognition (OCR) software is used.

While you approach a scanning agency, make sure the same process is followed for digitizing newspapers.

Organize And Digitize Old Newspapers

To conclude we can say that old newspaper digitization should play a more important role in the cultural preservation of minority heritage.

Scanning services enable us to digitize newspapers collection, old family photos printed in newspapers, newspaper articles, and to merge the entire stock. We can store digital files in cloud space in a secure way.

With improved possibilities to process scanning projects with bound volumes, it is to be expected that in the coming year’s newspaper digitization is already creating hype.

The operational way of doing expert-level newspaper scanning and digitization at the market’s best price is to hire a company such as eRecordsUSA. The company ensures that the conversion process is a smooth, and hassle-free task for you