Published on June 3, 2021

Congratulations to the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute and the University of Missouri Libraries on a new report, Endangered but not too late: The State of Digital News Preservation, released in May 2021, funded by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Edward McCain, principal investigator for the project, and his team, examined how much digital news is being archived, the methods of storage, and makes recommendations for news organizations to adopt so information won’t get lost forever. Read the Reynolds Journalism Institute story and watch the video interview with Edward McCain about the report.

Deborah Ward, Interim Vice Provost for Libraries and Interim University Librarian, says about the future implications of the report,

“This project highlights the role of librarians and archivists in the long-term accessibility of primary source content for the future. I’m pleased to see the many years of foundational work done at the Journalism Library and RJI taking shape through this project. Future scholars need access to perspectives on history and culture that preserved news can provide. Too often, we are already finding that these valuable insights get lost when technologies and digital platforms change. This research report of news industry preservation practices provides a blueprint for us to spin off numerous follow-up projects, such as a demonstration project for excellence in digital news archives management.”