saving a newspaper article

November 28, 2006 6:34 PM

I want to save a physical copy of an article in today's New York Times.

I'm guessing that newsprint deteriorates rapidly but what can I do to slow the process?

posted by rdr to Media & Arts (13 answers total)

Have it laminated?
posted by iconomy at 6:39 PM on November 28, 2006

Tape it onto a piece of paper and photocopy it.
posted by claxton6 at 6:41 PM on November 28, 2006

Scan it, then print it out on acid free paper.
posted by Calloused_Foot at 6:43 PM on November 28, 2006

Note: laminating it will ruin any value it might have although I'm assuming you're saving it for personal reasons. There was something in a newspaper I wanted to save and I bought two copies and framed one and laminated one, about 20 years ago. The framed one is starting to yellow but the laminated clipping still looks new at this point.
posted by iconomy at 6:45 PM on November 28, 2006

Quite a lot of good tips here to a similar question posed at Google Answers.
posted by beagle at 7:01 PM on November 28, 2006

Archivists scan (microfilm, whatever) and then toss the paper. Newsprint isn't considered valuable in and of itself (except really old stuff on rag stock.)
posted by cobaltnine at 7:01 PM on November 28, 2006

I laminated a newspaper article back in the early 1990's and it yellowed pretty fast. I think xeroxing it onto acid free paper is a better idea.
posted by selfmedicating at 7:08 PM on November 28, 2006

Foodsaver.
posted by Chuckles at 7:12 PM on November 28, 2006

I have a copy of the NYT with the moon landing cover story, thanks to my grandfather, who put it in a metal box stored in a cool place. Didn't see the light of day until a few years ago, and it's in excellent condition.
posted by phrontist at 9:37 PM on November 28, 2006

Yeah, vacuum sealing it, then putting it in a sturdy box in a cool place is probably the best thing to do. The cooler the better, but keep it above freezing (moisture would be awful).
posted by phrontist at 9:38 PM on November 28, 2006

maybe put it in a large airtight box. put a lit candle in it to make it airtight...

buy a few copies and make them different ways...
posted by Izzmeister at 10:23 PM on November 28, 2006

I guess you can roughly divide the answers here between those that interpret what you said as "I want to have a viable semblance of the item" (i.e. photocopy, scan, etc.) versus those that interpret what you are asking as saying that you want to preserve the very fiber of the physical piece of paper. I agree that trying to perserve newsprint is a hard task, certainly not very easy if you want to be able to actually view the item and not have it locked away. On the other hand, if you are just interested in a representation of the item then by all means just scan it at a high resolution and throw away the newsprint.
posted by Rhomboid at 2:10 AM on November 29, 2006

If you're looking to preserve the original newspaper page, definitely start with the Google Answers item posted above, or do your own Googling on archival preservation of newsprint, including possibly newsprint deacidification, which will give you items such as this and this.
posted by Dave 9 at 10:21 AM on November 29, 2006