Customers applaud the physical, personalized newspaper books for sturdy binding, careful packaging, and quick delivery. Many reviewers, however, describe major problems with the subscription service, including unexpected charges, blocked cancellations, and search breakdowns. Feedback splits by offering: printed keepsakes score high, while the online subscription and account management draw frequent complaints. Support response and billing practices come up often as pain points.
Examples from available reviews (Jun 2021 – Mar 2026).
High-quality book, well packaged, unique gift despite small print.
“I’m really impressed with the quality of the book”
Seller was professional and postage was very fast.
“Very professional and superfast postage highly recommend”
Unable to cancel free trial online and fears of being charged.
“it’s IMPOSSIBLE to cancel your free trial/auto renewal.”
Search is poor, print quality bad, and cancellation attempts failed.
“The search feature is not good”
Billing and cancellation problems show up repeatedly. Reviewers describe unexpected charges, auto-renewals, and refunds that are delayed or refused. A small number mention fast postage and professional handling for physical orders.
Several reviewers point to paywalls, add-on fees, and poor value in the subscription tiers. Some say upgrades are needed to reach content they believed the basic subscription included. A minority are happy with the value of the books they bought.
Many usability comments focus on search issues and site instability. Reviewers mention missing local papers, weaker Boolean results, download limits, and freezes that stop research. A handful compliment the navigation and describe the search as powerful.
Physical keepsake books often earn praise for paper quality, binding, and overall presentation. Some customers report problems such as damp or warped pages, small print, and editing mistakes in the reproduced newspapers. Overall, printed products trend positive, though a minority flag material or content issues.
Customers often describe support as unresponsive or rude, with emails going unanswered. Several say representatives did not fix billing or access issues. A few highlight quick deliveries and clear shipping updates.
Reviews split clearly between happy buyers of printed books and unhappy subscribers to the online service. Positive notes emphasize gift reactions, packaging, and on-time delivery. Negative reviews focus on account access, billing disputes, and unreliable search.
For each review, the core experience based on original source reviews.
Sources: Trustpilot (29) · Sitejabber (20) · Reviews (20) · Reviews (1) · Quotes shortened · As of: March 2026
Some photos on pages printed light, but reviewer satisfied overall.
“some of the photos on some of the pages”
Seller was professional and postage was very fast.
“Very professional and superfast postage highly recommend”
Ordering was easy and delivery was quick and correct.
“Really easy to order, arrived as ordered and quickly.”
Purchased as a Valentine gift and recipient loved it.
“He loves it.”
Book arrived damp and warped; buyer filed a PayPal case.
“was damp when I received it”
Search is inefficient and clips sometimes disappear, causing frustration.
“Sometimes you clip articles and they disappear.”
Gift recipient loved it; paper quality and packaging praised.
“Good quality paper, colouring is amazing”
Binding was good but the newspaper content was poorly edited.
“the actual “newspaper” parts of the book were poorly edited.”
Purchased personalized West Ham history book; arrived on time.
“delivered on time and in perfect condition.”
Recipient loves the book; it's very well made.
“Very well made.”
Customer felt the book materials and presentation were cheap and warped.
“Feels very cheap.”
Thoughtful personalized gift; arrived quickly and emotionally well received.
“Great, thoughtful gift.”
Received one, bought another; both were beautiful and recommended.
“I highly recommend Historic Newspapers”
80th birthday recipient loves the gift and displays it proudly.
“absolutely loves it.”
High-quality book, well packaged, unique gift despite small print.
“I’m really impressed with the quality of the book”
Arrived quickly, well packaged, with authentic newspaper content.
“Authentic newspaper and an excellent major Birthday Present”
Package not received; customer blames UPS and reports missing orders.
“I still haven´t recieved my package”
Bought 49ers book as gift; arrived promptly and in perfect condition.
“arrived promptly in perfect condition”
Book is nice but print is extremely small requiring a magnifier.
“print is extremely small.”
Bought Burnley FC history as a birthday present and were happy.
“Very happy with our purchase”
Book arrived quickly, well presented, and service and communication praised.
“turned up very quickly”
Unable to cancel free trial online and fears of being charged.
“it’s IMPOSSIBLE to cancel your free trial/auto renewal.”
Cancel button is disabled online, preventing subscription cancellation.
“the "Finish Cancellation" button is grayed out.”
Search returned only US results instead of Switzerland and support ignored complaint.
“Without exception all 26 were in America.”
Website makes simple tasks difficult and has multiple interface problems.
“Poorly managed clown show of a website”
Cancelled trial but was locked out and charged $150 in fraudulent transactions.
“Total taken in fraudulent transactions $150.”
Gift membership started immediately without allowing a start date; support unhelpful.
“It started that day so I had missed out on 30 days of use.”
Indexing often shows incorrect dates; users must verify image headers.
“You CANNOT assume that the date shown on the website is the actual date of the newspaper that you're looking at.”
Reviewer questions the value of newspaper subscriptions and media bias.
“Subscription to a Newspaper is a complete nonsense”
Company auto-renewed contract and deceptively charged customer's account.
“force renew their BS contract”
Customer service is rude and unhelpful; reviewer will cancel membership.
“Customer Service is horrendous - if they do answer an email it is rude and unhelpful.”
Couldn't cancel deceased mother's account despite many emails; kept being charged.
“i send 24 e mails and haven't been able to get this fix”
Search is poor, print quality bad, and cancellation attempts failed.
“The search feature is not good”
Reviewer criticizes journalists' poor punctuation in Birmingham news.
“Newspaper journalists are a joke.”
Search function degraded; Boolean queries return many irrelevant results.
“I get 1000s of worthless responses”
Auto-renewal and gift redemption failed; customer service unresponsive.
“no response...not one word from the representatives”
Was double billed; initially denied refund, later refunded after BBB complaint.
“We don't refund cancelled subscriptions”
Site became almost unusable and support did not respond.
“it has become almost unusable”
Paid subscriber cannot access account and received no effective support.
“It considers me a "guest".”
Reviewer complains about poor service and outrageous fees.
“Poor service ! Outrageous Fees !”
This page combines submitted experiences with public reviews from platforms such as Google, Trustpilot, etc. Recurring points are summarized without changing the content of reviews.
Newspapers.com runs an online archive of digitized historical newspapers and other primary-source material. It provides a web viewer and search tools to help users find articles, obituaries, and ads across newspaper pages. Access comes through subscription tiers, with optional add-ons for more publisher content. The platform supports genealogy, local history, and archival research with downloadable page images and clipping tools.