The Gleaner, which currently archives over 770,000 pages dating back to 1834, is the only publishing house in the Caribbean to have its archives made available on the Internet, joining top newspapers such as The Toronto Star in Canada, The London Times in the United Kingdom, and The Washington Post and The New York Times in the United States.

By simply logging on to Gleaner.newspaperar chive.com, a visitor to the site will be able to enter a search term and within seconds, receives a listing of Gleaner publications over 171 years.  If registered, for a fee, the actual printed page will be displayed and made available for download, printing or email.  The rates for the service are US$7.95 per day, US$29.95 per quarter and US$49.95 per year.

The service is being handled by a firm based in the United States which currently handles over 22 million pages archived for over 30 newspapers from across the world.

INTENSE EXCITEMENT

There is an intense excitement now in the air at the Gleaner Company, as the countdown to the launch of the new website has begun.  Expectations are sky-high, as the launch comes eight years after the now world renowned www.go-jamaica.com website, one of the most successful newspaper websites in the entire region, burst on to the scene.

The Gleaner run, Go-Jamaica website has grown into a monster, receiving about 120 million hits per month.

Marlene Davis, managing director of Gleaner Online, said she expects the new Gleaner archive website to be just as successful.

"We are looking for it to be very successful, because it is a great research tool.  Very few newspapers in the world can boast an archive that goes as far back as 1834," she said.

Errol Knight, technology manager at the newspaper, who spearheaded the drive to get the newspaper's archives online, said he is enthused about the upcoming launch .

"I feel very excited about the prospects of having this repository of Jamaican history available to the public.  I don't like to forecast these things, but I'm sure that with good exposure and good promotion, it will be a good revenue stream," he said.

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