The recent announcement by the New York Times on their new digital subscription plan has changed the world of online 
journalism. Many other struggling newspapers are carefully watching how this bold plan, a departure from the free online content we’ve all grown to expect, fares with the public.
Briefly, the plan will allow online viewers to read 20 articles per month for free. When they click on the 21st, they will be asked to buy 1 of 3 online packages. Subscribers of the paper version will have unlimited online access.
What does this mean for Johns Hopkins students, faculty and staff? While it’s true the libraries subscribe to the New York Times (you can find it in the Eisenhower Library in Current Periodicals on M Level), that one institutional subscription will NOT provide unlimited online access to all JHU affiliates. Newspapers, and this includes nearly all online archives of newspapers, do not offer site licenses that would allow all JHU-affiliated readers to access it online. However, the Times DOES plan to offer libraries site licenses in the future. As they say on their Q & A page: stay tuned!
All is not lost! We have access through several databases to the content (not, alas, the page images) of the Times. Check out the links to these databases from the Newspapers page on our website:
- Access World News: covers today’s paper back to 1985
- New York Times (1851-2007)
- New York Times (1980-current): covers the late Edition East Coast
- ProQuest Newspapers Current: covers several of the nation’s leading newspapers, including the New York Times