Newspapers are an inconvenient size and the paper quality is poor.
They deteriorate if stored on the shelf, and can be a real fire hazard. Over the years a variety of different media have been developed for storing backruns of newspapers, and this Library has examples of most of them. If you want to know whether we have a particular newspaper for a specific date, check WebCat, the Library catalogue, using Periodicals search to find the newspaper by title. The holdings note on the catalogue entry will tell you the length of the run for each newspaper. These are bought to support teaching and research.