Britishnewspaperarchive Reviews 

I have been using the archive for years (and paying the subscription fee), and I almost wept when I first tried to use the new site. But I told myself to calm down and give it a chance. 'It might not be as bad as you think it is', I said. I was talking rubbish.

I have sat squinting at the screen to see the pages that won't zoom in, waited while the site takes eight seconds to bring up the save as pdf option, searched for the same term in eleventy different ways and none of them worked, put everything in quotes and had them ignored, thumped my keyboard in frustration and fury so many times that I might need new keys, and I have come to the conclusion that, however bad it appeared at first, the site is a million times worse that I thought possible.

I am a professional researcher. I am in the middle of writing a book, and I had all of my bookmarks sorted so I could find what I needed. Now I have the saved newspaper pages but no way to know what's in them without opening each one; and the only way to find the relevant content is to read the whole page! Years of research that is useless now.

They have taken a site that worked and ruined it. And, more importantly, they have so negatively impacted the lives of those who depend on being able to use the site for research that many of us will miss deadlines, lose money, lose time, and possibly hair, given the amount of pulling mine is getting at the moment. They didn't just make a few changes; they stamped all over our work. They didn't just change the way the site works; they took away the results of research that we have already paid for.

They obviously didn't think about the site's actual users. I mean, how many of us want to click five buttons to do what used to take one click? Or wait ten seconds for what used to take less than one? And why move absolutely everything about, so nothing is familiar? You even have to click another button just to see what the newspaper's name and publication date are when you're viewing an individual newspaper page! Why in god's name is that not automatically displayed?

Ultimately, there's no point in an archive that you can't search properly. The site is not fit for purpose. It's certainly not what we have paid for.

For some reason I found after the recent upgrade that I couldn't access full text even though my subscription was up to date. I emailed Support and had a response 24 hours later. It appears I had managed to setup two conflicting accounts. Thank you, Vicky, for sorting this out quickly.

I’ve used this website both as a subscriber and non-subscriber for a number of years in order to research both personal and British history. Was one of the best research platforms around that only required a tiny amount of tinkering to make it perfect. So what on Earth have you done? It’s no good saying you can’t revert back because if you don’t you are going to lose many thousands of subscribers and new customers.

Why change something that was simple and very easy to use, very disappointed in the new format. I doubt very much if I will renew my subscription.

Have been using BNA for a number of years. The old format was simple, effective and reliable. Not so the latest version which is difficult to use for serious local history research. Much time wasted and many irrelevant results. I am an experienced local historian, co-editor of a national local history journal - it is a disgrace that BNA now offer such a poor product.

They have made something that was clear, intuitive and easy into something opaque, unwieldy and slower. Change for the sake of change- quite frustrating. They should change it back to its tried and tested formula. As it is, we have swapped a TGV for a steam-train.

Devastated about the complete downgrading of this site. I have had an account for almost ten years, had many articles (paid for) saved against bookmarks according to the area of research, and all bookmarks gone. Accessed pages are listed, but no categories to help you navigate, not even the original search terms used. All my research has essentially been lost for good and I'm not starting / paying all over again after all these years. Search results are now largely irrelevant and ignore exact phrasing and filters, and with a pay as you go account you will be fleeced fast as a result, (almost as if it is designed to force you to subscribe, hmm). This was a marvelous resource once, worked well, and a very important historic database, but FineMyPants have rendered it almost unusable.

Vey hard to search. They do not have all newspapers and if they only have part of some newspapers such as the Edmonton, Enfield & Southgate Weekly Herald. I was looking for the 1976 archives none, nothing for the Tottenham and EWdmontonWeekly Herald from about 1918 and nothing for the Hornsey Journal either.

The new update is awful

In the past I would have given this archive a 5 out of 5 star rating after subscribing since 2024. I had all my folders of information that I could easily access in the research for a book. Have come on to see they have updated the format.

At the moment I cant find my previously bookmarked articles. So hours of work wasted. If this is the format that is the future I don't currently see it worth while renewing my subscription.

You had a great product now you have an awful product that I would in its current form not suggest it to anyone.

Having used the BNA for years I am annoyed that all my notes related to various bookmarks are missing. This is critical because my local research relies on the details in my notes. Often column headings are broad i.e. council meeting, property for sale and auction sales. It is one specific entry within those general columns that I note.

Without them 6 months of research into a property is missing essential details.

The user interface is typical of a database, but because of the imperfections of OCR given old newsprint, does not suit my needs.

Very disappointed with the new Website, the old one was very easy to find a particular month and year of a newspaper. Not now though. There is no drop-down list of the years available for a particular newspaper, or if there is I cannot find it, before it was easy to click on year then month to search. I have now given up, hope there is an improvement soon.

The new webpage is simply ghastly. It used to be so easy and transparent, such a pleasure to use, to find articles on... it has changed into a reseacher's nightmare, it has become cumbersome and ineffective, a total disappointment. Why change what was so good to something that is just a disaster?

The new interface is now awful. It's too cumbersome, laborious to use. I've used this platform for years for my my research and only renewed for a full year 30 days ago.
If I wanted the inferior FMP search platform I would have subscribed through that. As it now stands, this platform is completely unusable for any quality research and unfortunately there's no other alternative - probably why they felt they could do what they want. I've requested a full refund as this isn't "as described" when I purchased.

I've used this site for many years, but am now very close to canceling my subscription. In short, they've unveiled a big update and largely broken it. They moved all the controls around to make them much less intuitive and convenient, but what's ever worse, they've messed up the search so that at least 1 in 3 articles you click on is nowhere to be found. Why the hell can't these people just LEAVE THINGS ALONE?

So disappointing, it was far easier to use previously.

The new interface is absolutely awful. It was clearly designed by someone who had never used the old version for any length of time. Yes, it was flawed but overall easy to use quickly but this new iteration is dreadful. I use it regularly and found it a great help and now, I cannot see me renewing my membership.

The new version is awful, all my bookmarks which I PAID FOR have vanished, the site is no longer intuitive, they can kiss goodbye to future custom. Been subscribing since 2012, say goodbye to a loyal customer..

Further to the BNA response, I have many, many bookmarks that I've viewed, and PAID TO VIEW. previously I would let my subscription lapse for a while and work through the bookmarks, until such time as a new run of newspapers caught my eye. Now BNA claim I NEVER had the ability to view the bookmarks unless subscribed, which is UTTER NONSENSE! Now they expect me to pay them a second time to view what I'd already paid for. Err, no thanks, I'll take my money to their rival.

Sophie was very helpful in answering my questions!

How to take your Trustpilot rating form 5 stars to 1? - Install a drop down menu for every refining search feature. Bye bye to the user friendly side bar! Nobody asked for this and subscribers are now stuck in drop down menu purgatory. I'm not happy about the "get used to it or f off" attitude of the people responsible for this horrrendous change.

The archive's new version is awful-I got 279 results for a search, most of which had nothing whatsoever to do with the person I sought.

Her middle initial was "M", and absurd results included every "Mc" or "Mac"

Did nobody test this fiasco?