Selected articles culled from regional newspapers also appear in the service. The file is not a true newspaper archive. The articles taken from local newspaper sources received poor archiving e.g., individual newspapers might have as many as 12 different titles in the journal name field. The new deal, as confirmed by a Gannett representative, definitely includes Dialog. It should bring a major new level of quality, as well as ultimately almost doubling the total number of newspapers covered on Dialog.
Every silver lining has a cloud, however.
Apparently in the course of assembling archives, Gannett is eliminating all content from freelance authors for which they do not have clear electronic rights. Responding to concerns over the Tasini copyright case rulings, they are handpicking and eliminating any articles not contractually secure from their archives. This will leave searchers unable to know what has and hasn t been covered in the course of a search. However, a Gannett representative assured us that almost all freelance arrangements for the last 2 years have encompassed such rights. Since the new database only goes back to 1999, that should make searching the new archive relatively comprehensive.