Newspapers

As a years-long newspapers.com subscriber for both both work- and hobby-related purposes and concurrently a longtime ancestry.com member, I've found newspaper.com's "customer service" is a sham. Example: The online/email option for getting assistance when problems arise is effectively nonexistent in real time. After filling out the online assistance form at least 6 times in the past 10 days (consistent with normal business hours where newspapers.com is headquartered) to get the company to remove long out-of-date info listed under my newspapers.com subscription so it correctly links with my ancestry.com account, every time I hit "SEND" the following newspapers.com message appeared: "This site is not currently available" followed by a toll-free telephone number that, when called, is NEVER answered in realtime by other than a voicemail message offering various "service" options at the touch of a button (and a wing and a prayer that anyone from newspapers.com will ever actually provide a timely return call, email, whatever). Additionally, newspapers.com changed several aspects of the way in which newspapers are presented/accessible/downloadable during the past couple years, as a result of which certain basic features (such as adjusting contrast) are difficult to use, etc. Very dissatisfied CA customer

They have a lot of newspapers from all over the U.S., but if you need to talk to their customer support folks, forget it! They can't be reached! They don't take calls and don't respond to messages left on their system even though they say, "we will make every effort to respond to you in 1-2 business days".

At first, the keyword searches would deliver a few bits of useful information. Now, the first result for each search has nothing to do with the topic. This is then followed with all the relative results - all blacked out, requiring an upgrade to another level subscription to view. Clearly an unethical business practice by newspapers.com and also present at parent company ancestry.com.

I signed up for a free trial, and wasn't able to pull even 1 item I was looking for. I canceled my membership on time, yet they still took $73 dollars from my checking account and they will not respond to the 4 emails and 2 messages I have left over the past week, and still have not refunded my money. If you call, their " corporate" phone number, it gives you a bogus message that they are helping other customers, and asks you to leave your name, email address, and phone number. No legitimate company on the planet does this, unless they have 3 people who leave messages a day, and they actually can call you back. Any company who doesn't take live calls,
And lies saying they are,, throws up a red flag. No response to my emails. Don't do it folks, go somewhere else!

I foolishly signed up again for a month, only to be reminded that Newspapers.com is all but worthless to my researching. I get blocked every time with "unable to search" BS. I have asked for help 2X, but no help is coming. They're not what they used to be before Ancestry bought them. Big Suck!

I've signed up for a free trial, and the website just stops working, you click on the paper you want to look at then it freezes

I cancelled an Ancestry account 3 months ago on line. They took a subscription payment days after I cancelled. They had to refund me. 5 days ago I saw their side company - Newspapers.com - had taken almost $75. From my checking account. Unauthorized and I do not
Have an account with them. They are thieves. I have called for the last 5 days. Over 400 times. All I get is a recording they are "busy helping other customers". I have repeatedly left messages. No reply. Their customer assistance seems non existent. I called Ancestry, the larent company, and they are absolutely useless as well. I have now filed a fraud claim with my bank and will write every reviews and open a BBB claim as well. Do not ever give this company your debit card. I'd give negative stars if I could.

The negative reviews concerned me but I recently located to important articles from Newspapers.com through Google. Using a gift card I purchased a monthly subscription (auto renewed each month). Navigation and searching is well designed and the library of papers is impressive. But I was disappointed that a number of my local papers are missing. So far I'm having fun and may hang on for a renewal. Cancelling is a click away but my gift card will protect me if that becomes an issue. My advice is to register for free and begin searching. You will not be able to read the articles but if it appears that Newspapers.com has what you need then it may be worth the $20 for a single month to harvest the data.

The information they have on the site is good, what is bad is the complete lack of customer service. I signed up for an account (I had had a previous account), and they where happy to take my money, but when it came to accessing the site I was told I didn't have an account, this was followed by three weeks of repeated calls and emails to them, no call was ever returned and at no point was I ever able to talk to a real person. The Emails where mostly ignored, however one got returned where they informed me that I had an email listed from a company I worked at over four years ago. They didn't bother to offer to change it to my current email or even explain how they ended up with that email, as I certainly didn't put it in. Any follow up emails asking for this simple change where also ignored. To date I have no access to their site.

I've been a subscriber for several years. They've had quirks and updates and I/ve been able to deal with them. But beginning around March of 2023 they have turned almost useless.
First: Since I signed on a few years ago, I've been using a 12 item search string with no problems whatsoever. Suddenly in late February, the string doesn't work and I get the message "Oops, we are having trouble loading results. Try again".
I do all of the usual clearing bookmarks and caches (which is their bot chat answer for everything) try again on 4 different browsers on three different computers two different OS and and iPhone. Same result. Meanwhile, waiting for some email response (as others have said, the phone number is useless.)
Finally get a reply that says I'm "not allowed" to have a search string that long.
I ask for some clarification as to why that is happening now after years of using that search string. It has been two and a half months of asking for a reply and explanation, and nothing.

Second: Today, May 19, I am now unable to use even a 3 item search string (which is what they first recommended). One item works. But if I have to search by only a single item, my work becomes ridiculously redundant.

Third: If you go into the Service Agreement, you will see (unless they have removed it) directions to call and Ancenstry.com number to help resolve your issues. I called and actually spoke to a decent human who gave me two numbers to call. The first was the regular number that never picks up, the second was just dead air.
Called back Ancestry got another person who gave me the same two numbers. When I told her they didn't work she said there was nothing they could do about it they are only "partners" with Newspapers.com and no one there can contact them. She said there was no way to escalate and to just keep trying the numbers.

So in essence, Newspapers.com is just charging us more for less now. Why throttle the search engine? Why not tell us that it is happening and why? What's the point of the site if it can't be searched (other than to take most of their clients money so they can look up obits and weddings).

Would give it zero if that was possible.

Horrible company. I wish there was an alternative.

There is no one to contact. I made several attempts to log on after they had taken 19.00 out of my account. I can't cancel or log in because I assume that you must pay to be a guest because that's what they have me as, then requested more money to vlog in, $#*!ing $#*! is ridiculous; I maybe have to get an attorney or something to get this straightened out because they're taking money for service that is not being provided they will not return your call as they say they would. They would not answer your email as they said they would. Yes, we need to get together and try to get a class action lawsuit against newspaper.com. It is a $#*!ing Rip that used to be good, but I don't know what happened.

I signed up for newspapers.com a year ago and paid for a one year subscription. A week ago I received notice that they were renewing the service. I emailed them to reverse their $59 yearly charge. I have not heard yet back from them and they did not reverse the charges to my credit card.

Forget Google - this site is jam-packed with newspapers and clippings going back up to 300 years. Can't wait until I can afford the $100 annual subscription fee.

Newspaper Archive is a big rip off. Don't get scammed. I signed up for a monthly fee. They couldn't even provide simple obits for people in the last 20 years. Don't get burned. Save yourself the frustrations. I found sites that are free that can provide moer information than this scammer.

Website updates have now made this once useful website a total crock. Monkeys must have been put in charge

I searched for a truly free old obituary site and newspapers.com came up. It says it will give you a free 7 day trial BUT IF YOU TAKE THE TRIAL as I did, IT FIRST REQUIRES YOUR CREDIT CARD INFORMATION and NEVER TELLS YOU THE AMOUNT YOU WILL BE BILLED after the trial period. That stopped me from giving it any credit information but they may still have my email address because I did initially agree to a free trial. That is just how a scam site does it. NEVER GIVE A COMPANY THAT IS NOT UP FRONT ABOUT ITS BILLING ANY INFORMATION - EVER! I suspect many, many other sites like it are scams too. Anyone can register a site name and make it seem legitimate.

Google had a news archive and other cool research things they abandoned in favor of political crap and so had newspapers.com they haven't done any big updates in years. The last big paper they ever did was Sacramento Bee over a year ago. I really don't understand what's going on with their site. It feels like a random number generator is being used as certain papers show up over and over with no actual new content added. It's in random order but eventually you'll recognize the papers.

When I first subscribed to newspapers.com years ago, it seemed like I got a lot of information. The newpapers were easyu to search and save the stuff to ancestry. I first noticed about a year ago, everything now requires the "publishers upgrade" to see anything. Disappointing. I'm already paying $199 a yar 9soon to be $229) for ancestry and $30 dollars every six months for newspapers, but anything i want to view has to be upgraded for another $60 every six months? Rip-off. The basic gets you pretty much nothing, but maybe a headline. I've read that the so called copyright on anything after 1922 or 1930 or something led to this "upgrade." If tha is the case how come a death in 1910, or one in 1887 also requires the "upgrade?" I'm sick and tired of being nickeled and dimed. You get excited to find some new nugget or valuable item about a hard to research ancester only to be told. To see this content upgrade! Give us more! Upgrade! And I'm sure when we upgrade to the publishers, in a short time they'll have the "publishers extra for an additional $xxx. Just wait. Nope I'm done cancelling my subscription when it currently expires. Done playing these games.

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I am unable to use this platform. Everywhere it is just an access issue. So many popups. Suck man. Waste of money. Canceling subscription right away.