North America's oldest newspaper joins Google's News Archive service

by Staff, Brand Republic 05-Nov-08, 11:10

QUEBEC CITY - North America's oldest continually published newspaper, the Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph, has partnered with Google to make its archives available online.

The Chronicle-Telegraph will receive half of the revenue from the ads that appear on the archived pages, some dating back as far as 1764 when the paper was known as the Quebec Gazette.

Publisher Pierre Little told the Montreal Gazette that the partnership will generate fresh revenue from old newspapers that "are just sitting around doing nothing".

Little said: "The news within our archives covers the most important milestones in the early history of Canada and the United States of America."

The Quebec Gazette was founded on June 21, 1764. From that year to 1842, the newspaper published both French and English editions. It started as a weekly, but in May 1832 it began appearing in English on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and in French on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

It was founded by William Brown and had 150 subscribers in 1764.

The paper is currently an English language weekly, with a circulation of 1,800.

The articles will be searchable through the Google News function and will join over 100 other papers in Canada and the US, including the New York Times and Washington Post, that also digitised their archives through Google.

Most newspapers that have made their archives available through Google also sell a viewing surcharge, usually $2 (£1.25) per article.