RetroNews, the BnF press website
To enhance the digitization of historical newspapers and make these valuable resources even more accessible, BnF-Partenariats, the subsidiary of the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF), has created and developed RetroNews, the leading website dedicated to historical press : retronews.fr.
With more than 2,000 digitized newspaper titles, regularly enriched and published online, RetroNews continues to evolve to offer an even richer experience. Two distinct platforms are now available: RetroNews and RetroNews Edu.
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RetroNews is designed as a modern media platform where history and current events intersect.
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RetroNews Edu, dedicated to teachers, students, and researchers, is a unique educational resource combining the diversity of historical press archives with advanced search features.
What is RetroNews?
Launched in 2016, RetroNews, the press website of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, offers free access to more than 2,000 newspaper titles published between 1631 and 1954.
Specializing in French press archives, RetroNews complements the resources available on Gallica. It serves as both a digital archive consultation space, a research tool, and a media platform that draws on historical press archives to shed light on current events.
RetroNews provides innovative advanced search tools and exclusive editorial content, helping users explore the past and better understand the present.
RetroNews : a new way to explore history
RetroNews has been redesigned to offer a smoother, more intuitive browsing experience, truly inviting users to explore and discover. With its new intelligent search engine, combining simplicity and efficiency, RetroNews enables users to quickly find the archives and content they need.
The modernized document viewer provides an immersive experience in historical newspapers with unparalleled clarity.
RetroNews as a media platform : editorial Content
RetroNews offers editorial content (articles, videos, podcasts) created by journalists, historians, and researchers, based on historical press archives. These pieces explore and analyze both major and lesser-known historical events, establishing connections between the past and the present.
The site provides historical press overviews and thematic or chronological access, tracing significant historical events as they were reported by newspapers of the time. This unique approach helps readers understand how historical events were perceived and how they still resonate today.
Users can freely access all digitized archives, along with a selection of editorial content. Subscribers enjoy additional benefits, including advanced search tools and exclusive content.
RetroNews as an archive database: advanced search
RetroNews is an essential resource for exploring historical newspaper archives. Covering over three centuries of press history (1631–1954), the collection includes major newspaper titles such as Le Petit Parisien, Le Figaro, Le Journal, and Le Matin, as well as political, regional, youth, cultural, satirical, colonial, and specialized press, offering a representative panorama of all press categories.
New titles are regularly added to the collection, which is accessible for free without registration.
Each newspaper has undergone OCR text transcription and semantic processing, allowing for precise and in-depth searches.
For users who wish to delve deeper into this extensive archive collection, RetroNews offers a subscription-based service with advanced search tools and expert functionalities, catering to researchers, genealogists, and history enthusiasts.
RetroNews for higher education, schools, libraries, and businesses
RetroNews also offers institutional subscriptions for universities and research institutions, granting access to students and faculty, as well as middle and high schools for their academic communities.
To meet the specific needs of these users, the RetroNews Edu platform was specially designed as a rich and specialized resource.
Like RetroNews, RetroNews Edu provides access to over 18 million pages of historical French newspapers, along with an additional 8 million pages of contemporary press archives under copyright, allowing users to explore recent history. Featuring advanced functionalities tailored for education and research, it enables interactive, educational use of archives while facilitating academic work.
Access to RetroNews Edu is exclusively available to educational institutions that have subscribed to a collective license. This license also includes access to RetroNews.
Learn more about collective subscriptions for universities and schools
Public libraries that have subscribed to a collective license also gain access to the RetroNews media platform, with their license including access to RetroNews Edu as well.
Learn more about collective subscriptions for public libraries
RetroNews and Lumni: free educational access
Through a partnership with Lumni, RetroNews provides free access to a selection of educational articles and teaching resources for students from CM1 (4th grade) to Terminale (12th grade). This offers a glimpse into the wealth of RetroNews content for the educational community.
Learn more about the RetroNews | Lumni partnership for schools
Commercial licenses for press archives
Finally, BnF-Partenariats issues and manages non-exclusive commercial licenses for the reuse of historical press archives available on RetroNews.
