How it works
Every hour, TLC News reads the public news feeds that the newspapers themselves publish, and stores whatever is new. A feed is a short window: it holds only the most recent handful of stories, and older ones drop off it permanently. Reading every hour is what makes the difference between having a copy and having missed it.
Each story is stored with the time the paper published it, which is not the same as the time we collected it. That distinction is the whole product. It is what lets the archive be ordered properly years later, and it is why a story whose date cannot be read is left out rather than given today’s date to make it fit.
Nothing here is rewritten, summarised or scored. A headline is the paper’s own headline and every story links back to the paper that wrote it. TLC News is an index and a time axis, not a newsroom.
Who makes it
TLC News is made by Time-Line Continuum, which builds timelines of the things people want to remember: family histories, company histories, and this, a running record of what the papers reported. The collection has been running since 2014.
Questions people ask
Why the timeline opens on one week, why some older stories do not open, how to search for an exact phrase, what an account costs and more are answered on their own page.
Technical details
What you need. Any current web browser, on a computer, a tablet or a phone. There is nothing to install and no plugin to add. The text is set larger than on most websites, and you can enlarge it further in your browser without the page breaking.
Opening an account. Reading the news archive needs a free account. An account needs an email address and a password of at least 8 characters. You tick a box to accept the terms and the privacy page, and a quick check confirms you are not a robot. We then email you a link to confirm your address, and you can start reading straight away. Create an account.
What it costs. Nothing at present. If that changes, we will tell you by email before it applies to your account, and you can decide then. An existing account will not start being charged without notice. What an account includes.
Where the reporting comes from. The reporting is not ours. It comes from the newspapers named on the site, and each item links back to the newspaper it came from.
What we record. What you search for is not recorded.