Have you ever stopped to consider the sheer amount of newspapers published worldwide? The U.S. alone has over a century of newspaper publications under its belt.
Millions of newspapers were published before 1923 - every one of them is now in the Public Domain. In fact, you may not realize, many newspapers published in the U.S. between 1923 and 1963 are out of timely copyright renewal.
Just imagine - a daily newspaper published in the United States between 1923 and 1963 would have its very first issue coming up for copyright 28 years later.
The second days issue would come up for copyright the very next day and the next days issue and so on. Every published issue until the year 1963 would come up for copyright renewal on the day of publication plus 28 years.
That newspaper publication would have had to keep a full time staff member just to keep up with copyright renewals.
The time and cost of renewing the copyright are the main reasons why the millions of newspapers published in the U.S. between 1923 and 1963 are available in the public domain.
This is great news for us because it leaves behind a massive stockpile of newspaper content in the public domain for us to dive into and legally use as content for our own projects.
Do you think that nobody cares about the content in old newspapers? Newspapers carried much more content than just current events and regional happenings. They contain evergreen topics such as handicrafts, health, astrology and the occult, home/herbal remedies, baby care… so many topics to choose from.
In short, don’t discount old newspapers as a potential source of great public domain content. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Of course, if you are putting together a project about a historical event, then there is simply no better source of content than public domain newspapers for great articles that give you the “scoop” on what was really happening during that historical moment.
Plus… public domain newspapers are an excellent source of photographs surrounding these historical events. The photographs may not be of the best quality, but many times you will find the only photographed record of an event is available in a newspaper published on that day in history.
If you are writing about something historical – a person, place, or event – why not back up your writing with actual examples from old public domain newspaper articles?
About The Author:
 Debra Conrad is an online entrepreneur, information publisher, and author that has been using Public Domain material to create profitable products and businesses since 2007. She is also co-author of "The Public Domain Treasure Hunter's Survival Kit" available here. For more info Debra, click here. |
|---|
[print_link]
Recommended Reading:
