net.TUTOR: News Sources

3. News Sources: Browse Newspaper Sites

"While having a handle on breaking news is important, the sheer quantity of news and its often frightening implications can make you crazy. It's helpful to have filters -- commentary, analysis, alternative points of view -- to help you make sense of the chaos taking place in the world today."
Chris Sherman, SearchEngineWatch.com

Current Newspapers

Newspapers can provide the filters that Sherman refers to. Editors select the most important of the breaking stories to include in the daily paper, along with news analysis and opinion (sometimes called op-ed columns).

Most national newspapers, such as the New York Times (requires registration), Christian Science Monitor or USA Today, provide free Web access to their content.

These sources contain:

Same content as the printed versions (news, analysis, opinion)
Breaking news stories
Special Web-only features
Searchable archives of past stories

2B: Locating Newspapers Using Directories

Many local newspapers, both U.S. or foreign, are also available on the Web. You can easily locate a newspaper by using a directory, such as:

See the Links page of this tutorial for more newspaper directories.

2C: Newspaper Archives

Most online versions of newspapers also offer archives of older stories as well. For example, the archive of the Christian Science Monitor extends back to the 1970s.

In most cases, you must pay for older articles retrieved from newspaper archives. Here are some tools for locating older news stories:

Locate a particular paper, such as the Los Angeles Times. Look for an Archives link on the newspaper's home page, and run a search.

Use a commercial service, such as NewsLibrary, to search a variety of newspaper archives simultaneously. Fees are charged for each article that you wish to view.

LexisNexis Academic, a library subscription database described later in this tutorial, also provides searching of both current and archived articles from many U.S. and international newspapers and other news sources (transcripts of television, radio news, etc.)

Use Google News, which now has an archive search feature. Fees are charged to view some of the articles found.

Movie Time

View the Using Google News Archive movie.

Activity

Use the NewsLink directory to find a newspaper in your home state or country.

Pop Quiz

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