Since 1884 the County Press has brought the news to Islanders, surviving other papers like the Isle of Wight Observer and Times that pre-dated it.
This week, the County Press have launched a paid-access service so you can see the pages of more than 6,500 editions of their back catalogue, equivalent to 125 years worth of Friday publications.
For editions between 1884-2005, the pages were scanned from microfilm (the same format the council’s free CP archive service is held in), which the CP say will be a lower quality image than 2006 onward, which where created electronically, so should be in perfect condition.
Searching is free and easy to use. Simply type in the words you’re looking for and the pages it’s appeared in the paper should appear.
The site is for personal use only, with the Terms saying, “You are not permitted to use the website or services for commercial, business or professional use or gain.”
Charges
Prices start at around 25p per page that you look at, with a minimum spend of £4.95, with the price per page reducing if you buy bigger bundles.
The site’s Terms say, “Credits are only valid for a fixed time period and will expire if you don’t use them in this time – this is made clear on the payment page when you buy them.”
Once pages are paid for, they are then available for six months after their first viewing.
The options to buy x days access is also given – 2 days (£5.95); 7 days (£9.95) ; 30 days (£19.95) or a full year for £49.95.
This option is ‘Subject to fair usage policy’, which in the site’s Terms says, “If you view more than an average of 1000 pages per month through your subscription (calculated over a 3 month period) we reserve the right to contact you to establish the reason for the abnormally heavy use of the site”.
IW council’s free option
The Isle of Wight council also has 125 years worth of County Press editions available on Microfilm for no charge at their Record Office at 26 Hillside, Newport.
There are also four other historical Isle of Wight papers available at the Record Office covering a total of over three hundred years of news publishing on the Island.
Image: Screen grab from County Press Archive
