Law and Legal Studies

Current newspapers

Oftentimes, the only information available about a case is in news articles. This is generally true when the case has not yet been decided or when the case takes place at the trial court level. Try some of the sources below for news articles:

Global Newsstream This link opens in a new window
Contemporary news from around the world. Focusing on newspapers, newswires, news journals, television and radio transcripts, blogs, video, and podcasts from today to the 1980s.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
Access World Research Collection This link opens in a new window
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Thousands of U.S. and global news sources, including printed and online newspapers, blogs, journals, newswires, broadcast transcripts and videos.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
PressReader This link opens in a new window
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Over 7,000 newspapers and magazines from across the world.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password. As of May 2022, Pressreader no longer supports Internet Explorer, please use another browser for the best experience.
State House News Service This link opens in a new window
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Wire service for Massachusetts state government news.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
Boston Globe This link opens in a new window
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Massachusetts' newspaper of record, 1980-present. Recent content is fully digitized from Jan 1, 2008 (Vol. 273) - present (delayed 3 months).

Users must limit their search to "full text" on the left side of the screen to make sure they only get results that include the Full Text. Without the limiter, the "abstracts" will be indexed as well.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
Western Massachusetts Newspapers This link opens in a new window
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Ten newspapers from Western Massachusetts, including the Daily Hampshire Gazette, Amherst Bulletin, Springfield Republican, and the Valley Advocate.
Two other databases contain the Springfield Republican:
Springfield Republican Current and Historical Archive
Contains all variations of the Springfield Republican from 1911-current, plus Springfield Republican blogs and web edition articles.
Springfield Republican (Digital Microfilm)
View images of pages for the Springfield Republican, starting with January 1, 2019. There is a 90 day embargo before images will show.

Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
Alt-Press Watch This link opens in a new window
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Several hundred U.S. alternative newsweeklies, covering issues like the environment, labor, public policy, and the peace movement, 1970-present.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
New York Times Online This link opens in a new window
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NYTimes.com Academic Pass users have access to the New York Times from 1851 to present, plus all multimedia, and to the NYT smartphone app.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.

Creating an Account
For instructions on how to create a account valid for four years with your UMass email, please visit this guide for step by step instructions.

All online newspapers at UMass
A list of newspapers and newspaper databases subscribed by the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Historical newspapers

Historical Newspaper: Boston Globe This link opens in a new window
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The entire Boston Globe, searchable, in image files, 1872-1985.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
Historical Newspaper: New York Times This link opens in a new window
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The entire New York Times, searchable, in image files, from 1851 to three behind current year.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.