We Tried to Keep Newspaper Finder Quiet.
That Didn’t Work.
In 2023, we set out to build a database of every digitized newspaper available online. Since then, we’ve been working behind the scenes, refining the data and the experience before sharing it widely. At RootsTech 2026, the plan was simple: quietly introduce Newspaper Finder to a small group of people and see what happened.
One promo post turned into:
- ~33 users → 1,100+ the next day
- 1,500+ users the day after that
- 1,200+ unique IPs hitting the API
And suddenly, this wasn’t a quiet test anymore.
So We Paid Attention
The emails started coming in almost immediately — a steady stream of:
- “This is great, but…”
- “Have you considered adding…”
- “The dropdown isn’t working…”
That last one came up a lot. If it didn’t behave the way you expected — you weren’t imagining it. That’s now been fixed.
Data Refresh: More Complete, More Current
While traffic was spiking, we were also finishing a round of data updates behind the scenes. Check out our April 2026 blog post to see more details.
That includes:
- Expanded coverage from existing providers
- Newly added scrapes (some of which took longer than expected)
- General cleanup of date ranges and metadata consistency
This is ongoing — and it will stay ongoing. Because the reality is: newspaper data is messy. Coverage is fragmented. Date ranges are often misleading.
We’re not pretending that goes away. We’re building around it.
What’s Next
We’re continuing to:
- Add new providers
- Improve data quality
- Fix what breaks (and things will break)
And we’re paying close attention to what you’re sending us — especially provider suggestions.
If you’ve reached out already: thank you. If you haven’t: feel free.
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