Deteriorating newspapers at the British Library

Nice post from Martin Belam who looks at the problems at the British Library over preserving newspapers.

He writes that

750 million pages of newspaper were described as "the most fragile" part of their collection by Helen Shenton, Head of Collection Care. It is a problem that makes freesheet ink rubbing off on your hands seem trivial by comparison.

What happens to a newspaper's archives when it folds

An interesting question and answered by Slate magazine

They usually wind up at a competing paper or in a library. In the last quarter of the 20th century, when many cities lost one of their competing newspapers, it was common for the survivor to absorb the assets of the one that went out of business.