Baylis Media Launches Digital Archive

Baylis Media has launched a digital archive featuring more than 200 years of local news from its portfolio of titles.

The Baylis Media Ltd ePaper and Archive is an online portal which holds printed editions of the Advertiser from 1870, the Windsor Express from 1812 and the Slough Express from 1950.

It has been created by digitalising newspapers held on microfilm, processing more up-to-date editions of the papers held in PDF format and scanning the occasional bounded printed copy.

Jason Baylis, chairman of Baylis Media, and the company’s production and IT director, has been managing the three-year project, which has cost £38,000.

“We had a significant library of microfilm here at our main office and we thought it would be a fantastic resource for our community to have all this digitalised,” he said.

“We already had a fantastic online page-turning tool that was provided by a company called Pagesuite, and we had been using that for quite a few years for our online readers, so we’ve worked with them to develop and build an archive incorporating this page-turning service.”

Jeremy Spooner, chief executive officer of Baylis Media, (pictured) said: “We are very proud of our new online archive which allows the community that we have served for over 150 years the opportunity to take their own step back in time, for whatever reason that may be.

“Local newspapers have been the custodians of a community’s history through its print archives and this initiative allows us to share that archive with the public.”