New Program Dedicated to Digitizing Small Town & Community Newspaper Archives

Seattle, WA, September 10, 2015 --(PR.com)-- SmallTownPapers, Inc., leading provider of archiving solutions for small market and community newspapers, has launched a new program creating the first online newspaper archive repository dedicated to small town America. Discover America’s Story helps publishers of smaller newspapers overcome the major hurdle preventing them from digitizing their printed archives – cost and technology challenges - and making their archives online accessible and searchable for the world to explore.

Paul Jeffko, Creator of Discover America’s Story: “I was speaking with publishers every day who were desperate to digitize their archives for two main reasons – to provide online access for their town and also to protect the documented history of the community from being lost to deterioration or things like a fire or flood. The challenge for most was that they were struggling to survive and just didn’t have the money to move forward with scanning the pages and hosting them online.”

Discover America’s Story is built on the tried and true method of selling ads against content but it has a fresh and important spin – historical preservation and an invaluable service for the community. Publishers partner with their community’s most caring local employers, businesses and civic organizations to create a new and enduring historical resource. Newspapers set their own ad rates and all revenue generated is theirs.

Tim Schnoebelen, Publisher of The Mooreland (OK) Leader: “This archive project had been on my bucket list for several years because our archives were difficult if not impossible for individuals to access and search, but it was going to take additional time and money I didn’t have. Then I heard about Discover America’s Story which makes it easy for me to generate funds needed make those files searchable and put them online. I was eager to get to it.”

This year, The Mooreland Leader became the first to use the revenue generating program and within days, had new advertisers on board whose sponsorship funded the process to digitize their archive and publish all the scans in searchable format on their own unique webpage.

Having digitized the archives of hundreds of newspapers across the country, SmallTownPapers offers both high quality scanning services and online hosting. Publishers exclusively own and control all digital copies of their archive and no partnership agreement is required.

Tim Schnoebelen: “Discover America’s Story is giving everyone with a connection to Mooreland a gift they can enjoy and share today and for generations to come. We’re proud to be a part of this landmark newspaper archive program which recognizes the unique history and perspective that exists in America’s small towns like ours.”

So far, Tim has successfully funded the digitization of two-thirds of their 100-year archive, and expects to complete the project before the end of 2015. And since the web pages are designed to showcase the local sponsors, the newspaper can generate ongoing revenue through legacy sponsorships.

Discover America’s Story is now available for the thousands of American small town and community newspaper publishers across North America. The result is a completely new online historical resource, a national repository of scanned newspaper archives exclusively from the heart and soul of America. Learn more at www.discoveramericasstory.com.