Best Bets: Online Research Tools for U.S. Newspapers
- Alliance for Audited Media (AAM)AAM's Media Intelligence Center contains circulation statistics for over 3,000 U.S. newspapers and magazines. Audited Reports and Publisher's Statements provide information on total paid circulation for annual subscriptions and single copy sales, average prices, and circulation by issue and geographic region. Compare print and digital readership rates and find data on website usage, mobile app downloads, and social media interactions. Reports can be downloaded in PDF or exported to Excel. Create custom charts and graphs. Membership includes access to Magazine Market Coverage, which contains detailed circulation statistics for consumer magazines by CBSA from 2003-present. Our license only allows for one concurrent user.
If you discover you need a title that we don't own, you can always do an interlibrary loan!
- Ulrich's Periodical DirectoryListings of 250,000 periodicals, serials, annuals, continuations, and conference proceedings in 2600 subject areas from over 200 countries. Includes indexing information and some full-text reviews. Updated weekly. Also available in print in Shannon.
- WorldCat (OCLC) This link opens in a new windowA huge bibliographic database, containing millions of records for items of all types, including newspapers, owned by libraries all over the world. A good resource for finding out where U.S. newspapers not owned at UVA might be located. Items found in WorldCat may be requested by UVA students and faculty through interlibrary loan.
- Center for Research Libraries (CRL)Search the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) catalog for holdings of US and International newspapers, including "underground" and ethnic press titles. The CRL is a consortium of North American universities, colleges and independent research libraries whose resources are made available to member institutions through interlibrary loan.
- Chronicling America This link opens in a new windowChronicling America allows you to search and view millions of American historic newspapers, published 1836-1922 as well as discover more about newspapers published in the U.S., 1690-present.
API available, more information here: APIs for Scholarly Research
More Online Research Tools for U.S. Newspapers
- Library of Congress NewspapersThe Library of Congress maintains one of the most extensive newspaper collections in the world, exceptionally strong in US newspapers, with 9,000 titles covering the past three centuries.
- RSAP Periodical Research ResourcesScores of full-text and other free historical periodical resources from Research Society for American Periodicals (RSAP).
- U.S. Newspaper ProgramThe United States Newspaper Program is a cooperative national effort among the states and the federal government to preserve on microfilm newspapers published in the U.S. from the 18th century to the present. Lists of holdings and/or searchable databases of microfilm titles available for most states.
Print Research Tools for U. S. Newspapers
Print material held at UVA Library.
- Alternative Press Index (multivolume set)Use as subject index for Underground Newspapers (1963-1985) on microfilm. Covers over 550 radical newspapers from the United States and some foreign countries.
- Chronological tables of American newspapers, 1690-1820; being a tabular guide to holdings of newspapers published in America through the year 1820See also Brigham's History and Bibliography of American Newspapers, 1690-1820 (2v).
- History and bibliography of American newspapers, 1690-1820Lists over 2000 newspapers, including dates of publication, title changes, editors, frequency, and other historical notes.
- Print Indexes to Individual U.S. Newspaper Titles at UVAHistorical indexes to major U.S. newspapers.
Newspaper Directories & Circulation Statistics
These directories list all the newspapers and publications, and their circulation statistics, in the United States. Almost all of the titles listed below are all part of the same Ayer lineage, but the title changed every few decades. They are generally located together in Z6951, although we do not have every single edition. Editions from 1869-1920 can be found online.
- American Newspaper Directory and Record of the Press1861, online only. Not part of the Rowell's/Ayer lineage.
- Rowell's & Ayer's American Newspaper Directory1869-1920 online, brought to you by the Library of Congress
- Rowell's American newspaper directory1870-1902 (with gaps)
- N.W. Ayer & Son's American newspaper annual1880-1909 (with gaps)
- N.W. Ayer & Son's American newspaper annual and directory1914-1928 (with gaps)
- N.W. Ayer & Son's directory of newspapers and periodicals1930-1969 (with gaps)
- Ayer directory of publications1972-1982
- Gale directory of publications1987-1989
- Bowker's news media directory2004-2009. Not part of the Rowell's/Ayer lineage.