Preserving news in a digital age

Sabinet’s News Research Service is designed to meet the needs of public and government libraries, universities and corporate libraries.

Sabinet’s News Research Service is designed to meet the needs of public and government libraries, universities and corporate libraries.

Published Aug 10, 2022

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There’s only one way to research news, says Sabinet, home to a most impressive portfolio of South African news and digital archives.

Sabinet’s News Research Services is an important resource in the Sabinet portfolio of products, with a focus on current and historical news dating back to 1977.

“The closure of many print newspapers and publications in the last 50 years has made it imperative to preserve and share access to our archives,” says Sabinet’s Head of Product, Sanet Vos. “Users have online access to a comprehensive collection covering over 100 archived newspapers as well as 30 current ones. They have the unique opportunity to discover the intricacy of South Africa’s past and present as reflected in its newspapers, it is the most effective way to source news reliably.”

Sabinet’s News Research Service is designed to meet the needs of public and government libraries, universities and corporate libraries – providing perspective and valuable content. “By harnessing the power of technology and content with our current and archived news, researchers can access invaluable insights into South African news going back 45 years. This living archive reflects events as they were recorded at the time.”

Sabinet Newswire, together with SA Media (News Clippings), has a team of professionals working on our news content. “We add approximately 3 500 news articles weekly and have over 4.5 million archived news articles ensuring a comprehensive resource for your research,” Vos explains. “Users have access to a database of prominent South African articles and titles, some of which are no longer in publication.”

This incredible news collection is available on a single search interface with subscription options ranging from purchasing a single article to subscribing to various publishers. “Our navigation tools offer the ability to filter by publication date, content type, subject category or alphabetically,” says Vos.

African News Agency (ANA) provides South African and African news covering politics, economics, business, law, markets, sports and general news dating back to November 2015. This standalone collection has a database of 239 800 articles and is growing.

“Until March 2015, South African Press Association (SAPA) was heavily relied upon to supply news to media channels, newspapers, television, radio, and online news portals, locally and internationally. Sadly, it closed its doors, but Sabinet has created what is currently the only known archive of SAPA articles since 1999. Both the South African Press Association (SAPA) archive and African News Agency form part of Sabinet Newswire. Clients can subscribe to the full Sabinet Newswire or individually to each of its collections.

“We also host the Arena Holdings, Independent Newspapers, and The Citizen collections, of which some titles date back to 1977. Prominent South African newspapers such as Business Day, Financial Mail, Sunday Times, The Star, Pretoria News, Cape Times, and The Citizen are covered by these collections. Our archived collection includes historical titles such as The Friend, Die Afrikaner, The World and many more," concluded Vos.

Sabinet’s News Research solutions facilitate collaborative research across multi-disciplines by filling gaps that may have been lost or damaged, and coverage spans years to reveal the evolution of a larger story from multiple perspectives.