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Schibsted unlocks the archives – 200 years of history in your e-paper
Schibsted opens its historical archives to the public – without duplicating storage, enabled by Prenly and Webarch.When Schibsted wanted to make large parts of their newspaper archives available in their e-newspaper, they needed a solution that combined technical efficiency, preserved archive structure, and daily ingestion of new material – without duplicating content or building parallel systems.
The work began with Svenska Dagbladet, whose archive spans nearly 150 years. The same technology was later applied to other Schibsted titles, including Aftenposten and Aftonbladet, whose archives go back almost 200 years.
Challenge: Access to historical and current content – without parallel systems
Schibsted wanted to:
Make older material searchable and accessible directly in their e-newspapers
Retain control over the original material without migrating it to new systems
Automatically ingest new content from today’s print editions – structured, complete, and in the correct format.
Solution: Prenly for indexing and display – Webarch for content extraction
Prenly handles indexing and presentation. Content is retrieved via API from Schibsted and stored only when requested – in real time – and removed when no longer needed. This enables a smooth user experience without unnecessary data storage.
Webarch extracts articles, pages, and metadata daily from Schibsted’s printed newspapers and converts them into a structured, archive-friendly format that integrates into the digital workflow.
Result: A living, scalable, and unified archive
With the help of Prenly and Webarch, Schibsted has:
The work began with Svenska Dagbladet, whose archive spans nearly 150 years. The same technology was later applied to other Schibsted titles, including Aftenposten and Aftonbladet, whose archives go back almost 200 years.
Challenge: Access to historical and current content – without parallel systems
Schibsted wanted to:Make older material searchable and accessible directly in their e-newspapers
Retain control over the original material without migrating it to new systems
Automatically ingest new content from today’s print editions – structured, complete, and in the correct format.
Solution: Prenly for indexing and display – Webarch for content extraction
Prenly handles indexing and presentation. Content is retrieved via API from Schibsted and stored only when requested – in real time – and removed when no longer needed. This enables a smooth user experience without unnecessary data storage.Webarch extracts articles, pages, and metadata daily from Schibsted’s printed newspapers and converts them into a structured, archive-friendly format that integrates into the digital workflow.
- Together, Prenly and Webarch create a workflow where:
- No duplicate storage is needed
- New content is continuously added to the archive
- Historical and current material coexist in the same system, without disrupting editorial work
Result: A living, scalable, and unified archive
With the help of Prenly and Webarch, Schibsted has: - Digitized and made historical archives accessible in a modern format, without rebuilding existing systems
- Created a technical structure that scales across multiple newspapers – from Svenska Dagbladet to Aftonbladet and Aftenposten
- Made it possible for readers to search over a century of journalism, integrated into the daily news feed