Over 200 years of newspaper content to be made available as TimesOnline launches digital archive

TimesOnline has launched a beta version digital archive opening up over two hundred years-worth of newspaper content to web users.

The archive, which was launched over the weekend, will feature content produced by The Times, Sunday Times and TimesOnline published since 1785.

The amount of content in the beta section will be expanded before its official launch, which is expected in the next couple of months, Anne Spackman, editor-in-chief of TimesOnline, told Journalism.co.uk.

The archive plan has been on the agenda at News Corp for some time. Eighteen months ago, Times Media's digital publisher Zach Leonard told Journalism.co.uk that the company was looking at the possibility of building an archive of all its content.

Now the plan has come to fruition, the paper is using technology from search company FAST to help build the service and allow users to 'delve deeper' into the archived content.

The archive will initially be free to users, Spackman added, though this would be reviewed over time with the possibility of some subscription packages being introduced.

The archive will be managed by the site's editorial team lead by an archive editor.

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