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Guardian News and Media (GNM) is turning its entire 212 years of newspaper content into an online digital archive.

This first phase - available on guardian.co.uk/archive from November 3rd - will consist of content from The Guardian from 1821-1975 and The Observer from 1900-1975.

Users will have access to exact replicas of the original newspapers, choosing between full page or individual article displays.

The timespan of the archive will be expanded in early 2008 to cover the whole 212 years of the group's publishing history, dating back to editions of The Observer from 1791.
 
When completed more than 1.2 million pages of digitised news content from the papers will be accessible in the online archive via a subscription service.

Readers of the papers, in November, will initially be offered a fee trial of the archive. After then a 24-hour pass will cost £7.95 and a three day pass £14.95.

One month's access can be bought for £49.95, while universities and libraries can buy a licence for distribution.

GNM said the archive, which began development last December, would ensure the 'preservation of the papers' legacy' at a time when microfilm  and paper copy are rapidly degrading.

"The launch of the archive will revolutionise the way in which users are able to access our historic content," said Gerard Baines, head of syndication and rights, Guardian News and Media.

The digitisation process was carried out by Silicon Valley-based Olive Software and focused on maximizing the readability and searchability of the content.

"Having all this content and rich history in a searchable repository gives Guardian News and Media great flexibility to lead the publishing world towards creative new business models for repurposing their content for the internet age," said Yuval Rachmilevitz, president and CEO of Olive Software.

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