Britishnewspaperarchive Reviews 

Used to think this was a great site (I worked in IT for many years and found this site excellent - well presented). It is now a total shambles. Not sure if I will be subscribing again. Who did you get to do the upgrade - if it was external contractors I suggest it is time to go elsewhere. Time to wake up and listen to your customers. Put it back as it was or you will be losing a lot of subscribers - and money. Take notice ansd admit the upgrade was a costly mistake!!

Given the simplistic searching of the old system I cannot understand why they have now made it virtually impossible to use.

Simply pick region, dates, newspaper has been replaced with a system I cannot grasp or understand, & given the years of research I've carried out, i thought id quickly get to grips with it.
I do not understand why these organisations continually want to remake the wheel.

I cant & will not renew my decade long subscription.

I have no idea how a company could make such a mess of a perfectly functioning website. I agree with everyone else's scores here and would give it a zero if I could. Since the "upgrade" the site is unusable. Even if you can actually get into the home page, the UI is not user friendly and has obviously skipped any in depth beta testing before launching this upon an unsuspecting public. Poor form all around.

The changes that have been made to the BNA website are absymal! I have spent a lot of money subscribing to your services as they were the best. But these recent changes to the websites UI have made it impossible to navigate. I would warn the team responsible for this update that the people complaining aren't just people of an older generation who "dislike change" or "Struggle with newer tech". I am 32, I grew up with computers, websites and apps and I find this over simplification of a deisgn disastrous.

I've poured so much of my time and my money into researching my family history, I have so many articles saved. Articles that I could quickly look back at and remember basic information like the newspaper name and the date published. But somehow that's all gone now and all my bookmarked articles are reduced to a simple newspaper headline that might not even be relevant to why I saved that page. I need to have sources listed and organised otherwise EVERYONE'S research is useless. Given that BNA is based on archiving history, you should know how important those details are!!

Give us back the old website UI. This update is better suited for app users maybe. But for those of us who use it on desktop it's totally unfair. I specifically do not use Find My Past because they have exatly the same UI design and it's wholly unsuited for in depth research.

I used to love the BNA website, but the recent "improvements" are terrible. An enjoyable and rewarding research pass time has now, sadly, become a chore.
The new search options are far too complicated, and the results are not as accurate as the old website. I've tried using my keywords in each of the myriad of fields but none seem to work as before. I'm pretty savvy with computers but this interface is baffling.
And why so many time-consuming drop-down options?
The user interface is just not logical anymore.
The incredibly useful 'new and upcoming newspapers' link is gone too.
Unless the old (and very reliable) search parameters and simple menu options are replicated, I will, sadly, not be renewing my subscription.

The change to the site has been an unmitigated disaster, What was a simple and easy system to operate and drill down has become a nightmare with far too many filters being needed. Yes there are some improvements in the clippings for example but that is not the problem - which is that the research itself - the most important aspect is cumbersome, time consuming and ineffective. Will not be renewing - the pleasure has gone.

Impossible to use the recently updated site now. Renewed my membership 4 weeks ago as BNA was a great resource over the last couple of years on my family ancestry search....... however I now can't use it. Unable to refine my searches......and end up getting thousand plus returns when I search for something! Extremely disappointed.......and regretting renewing my membership.

I used to love this site: by far the best for newspaper research. If only the company had bothered to do some research amongst its users before it launched this disaster.

I work with a lot of tech and I'm used to programs changing so I thought I'd give this a go. Often things do become intuitive once you've worked with them a little.

Alas that is not the case with this update. I created a new collection but cannot import any of my original bookmarks into it: they each have to be viewed and then saved into the new collection.

Well, you'd hope that would be the case, wouldn't you? I created a new collection, painstakingly clipped, annotated and saved three test clippings into it, only to find out that my collection had completely disappeared when I went back to try and find it via the menu.

The 'new' bookmarks are an unhelpful disaster as far as finding anything goes. The title of each clipping is gobbledegook. The date against it is the date you accessed it, not the date of the original article.

Fortunately I always make a document copy of my research, but I like to double check things and BNA have made this completely impossible.

I don't know who was responsible for coding this disaster, but for future reference, there is a thing called beta-testing you appear to have entirely ignored. If, as I sincerely hope, you restore the old functionality to the site, for God's sake beta-test it.

I have to agree with all of the negatives views regarding BNA. The site worked perfectly well without this upgrade which is appalling. I have been a member for many years but as my subscription renewal is due in October I may well look at the alternative site on Ancestry.com. I used to enjoy this site so much but can only say, "if this is progress, forget it”. Very disappointed.

The changes to the site have made it exceptionally difficult to use . As a result I haven’t renewed my subscription (after using for several years) and won’t until they go back to how it was or make big improvements.
The only positive is I did like the ability to look more easily through an entire edition and move easily to the next one . But that’s it - the rest of it is now a shambles. They have ruined what was a fantastic resource.

Through some administrative glitch, my annual renewal had not been processed two months ago. I found the telephone number to ring on the website Contact link. It was answered promptly by Joanna who acknowledged what had happened, advised me to pay for renewal there and then, and offered me some discount so that I wasn't being charged more than previously. Excellent service and very pleasant manner. Thank you!

Ruined a perfectly good site! The new layout is not user friendly at all and takes more time to find my saved bookmarks; which took me long enough to find as I thought they'd been wiped! You can't put them in alphabetical order so I have to scroll through loads of pages! Not Happy :(
Please change back

Many thanks to Sophie for prompt, courteous and helpful support in resolving payment issue.

The new site is a shambles and completely un-user friendly. Did the British Newspaper Archive actually consult anyone who uses the site before making the change? All I can see is a lot of fluff, extra clicks and complexity, where the old site - whilst not perfect - was clear and easy to navigate. My suspicion is that they based the design on integration with Find My Past, but failed to appreciate that many many many people who aren't genealogists - including me - use it for other forms of research.

They need to provide an option to revert to the old site or go back to it wholesale.

Questions for BNA. Before making fundamental changes, do you engage with subscribers to understand how they use the site? Have the changes been made due to overwhelming popular demand from users? Has the IT department made the changes simply because it can? Look at post-28th July reviews. What do you see? What used to be a pleasure is now a chore. What next? 'Stick' and lose subscribers, 'Twist' and lose face?

What a dreadful mistake it was, changing a tried and trusted format for this ghastly replacement. Search facility rubbish, all saved records gone and can't be viewed without paying again. Are you having a laugh? What set of crooks! And no - I won't be renewing.

I have already complained about the new website design. As a long-standing customer I am increasingly frustrated by the complicated and inefficient searching process that Advanced Search entails. Printing off results can be done but it too is a lengthy process. Unlike other complainers I always printed off my searches in the 'old' system which was much more straightforward. I am unsure what market BNA now is trying to attract - if it is serious long-term researchers then you will lose their interest. I think giving the new format even one star is hugely generous.

I recently paid one year subscription to this newspper archive. It is nigh impossible to search for anything. The search engine is complicated and it takes ages to search and nothing relevant comes up. Some editions of newspapers aree not on there, years wotth! i.e. Tottenham Weekly Herald 1976 to 1980. Hornsey Journal 1976 plus, and some sixties editions of the Croydon Advertiser.

I was one of the early complainers about the new but not improved website, the former I had used for years. Since then I have tried using it almost on a daily basis, trying to get some method that works. Unfortunately, unless some major changes are made or reverting to the old model, you will lose customers and if it is a case of "they will get used to it in time"....people will not and it will become a last resort site rather than a go to.

i have been a memebr for over ten years and have loved every minute but this new system so called upgrade??? is awful please change it back asap you will get no users and lose me and other longterm users all my research from the last 10 years which was easily accesible is now a nighmare to find its beyond a joke really .. you ruined it!!! it there i know i just cant find it like before it is lost to me anyway... I simply cant use the new system it has become more like the awkward ancestry sites... Im not renewing and i would tell anyone now stay well clear im so sad about this from 5 to 1 star in the click of a button, whos idea was this change?? please listen to your paying long term users and change it back!!!!!!!!!! minus 5 stars now im very very sad and annoyed and angry cant express how it makes me feel from the black country history hunter long term lover of your site but you have lost me