Why publishers should ‘bite the bullet’ and digitise their archives

Earlier this year, Reuters announced it was partnering with ITN Source to make historical archive footage available online. The project, to be completed in 2016, includes Reuters News clips dating back to 1957 and cinema newsreels from 1910 to 1959.

“We are bringing our archive to the centre,” said Tim Redman, head of archive at Thomson Reuters, “and this is a great opportunity to complete our end to end news service, making text, pictures and video available on the same platform.”

Over 115,000 clips from the vaults have been digitised, bringing the Reuters archive to almost half a million video clips when added to those recorded after digital storage became the standard in 2006.

This includes footage from a 1964 beer drinking championship in London; ‘Snow White’, the only albino gorilla in captivity performing tricks; and a man being set alight to demonstrate a new fire extinguisher, among others.

The digitisation has also revealed previously unknown content, such as a 1963 documentary about newsgathering filmed by cameramen around the world, as well as war footage that film makers can use to give context to events.

Source: journalism.co.uk

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