The Swiss National Library has reached a significant milestone: more than 15 million digitised newspaper pages are now freely accessible online via e-newspaperarchives.ch powered by the Veridian platform.

This achievement is a testament to the National Library’s long-term commitment to preservation, public access, and collaboration. It reflects not only the richness of Switzerland’s regional press traditions, but also the power of sustained digitisation and scalable digital infrastructure to support growth over time.

Preserving Switzerland’s regional press heritage

Switzerland’s press landscape has always been deeply regional — reflecting linguistic diversity, cantonal identity, and local culture.

From small-town publications such as Oberegger Anzeiger (Appenzell Innerrhoden) to regional voices like Der Nachläufer in Valais — both titles that no longer exist — this collection of newspapers form a detailed record of Swiss history. The oldest editions date back to 1692, offering more than three centuries of documented life, culture, and change.

“Switzerland has a great many newspapers, even if some of them have disappeared. They tell of the richness of each region.”
- Martina Hoffmann, Head of the National Library’s Digitization Department.

Today, e-newspaperarchives.ch is:

• Freely accessible online.

• Fully searchable via full-text OCR.

• Structured with article-level segmentation.

• Supported by internationally recognised metadata standards.

As well as being open to the general public, the archive creates new opportunities for researchers and scholars. For example, tracing advertising trends over time, exploring economic changes, examining social movements, or conducting genealogical research — all within a single digital environment designed to support discovery and long-term access.

Scaling a national newspaper archive

Swiss National Library e-newspaperarchives.ch growth timeline

When the Swiss National Library migrated its digital newspaper collection to the Veridian platform in 2018, the archive comprised approximately 3.3 million pages.

By 2022, the collection had surpassed 10 million pages.

Now, in 2026, the platform has exceeded 15 million pages from over 200 Swiss newspaper titles.

Supporting sustained growth while maintaining performance and accessibility is central to how the Veridian platform is designed. For the Swiss National Library, this scalability has enabled:

• Ongoing addition of new titles and editions.

• Integration of both historic and selected contemporary content.

• Seamless expansion without compromising user experience.

Reaching 15 million pages is not only a digitisation milestone — it is a demonstration of infrastructure working at scale.

Related reading: Built to Scale: Veridian Software Supports Collections of All Sizes

Looking ahead: 2030 and beyond

The Swiss National Library has set its sights on further expanding regional coverage, particularly in Central Switzerland, Appenzell Ausserrhoden, and Basel-Landschaft, with ambitions to add several million additional digitised pages by 2030.

Given the trajectory from 3.3 million pages in 2018 to 15 million today, this next phase of growth is both realistic and exciting to support.

We congratulate the Swiss National Library and its partners on this significant achievement.

Supporting institutions as they preserve, scale, and expand access to cultural heritage is at the heart of what we do, and we are proud to continue partnering with the Swiss National Library as the e-newspaperarchives.ch collection continues its remarkable growth.