A treasure trove of hockey history that's years in the making is now available with The Hockey News Archive. Deputy publisher and creative director Erika Vanderveer shares the process of digitizing more than 2,600 issues.
On an almost daily basis, a staffer at our office would ask if anyone
remembered a certain cover story, article or event. Someone would
pipe up – usually the very knowledgeable senior editor Brian Costello
– and try to direct them to the proper resource.
They would then need to sift through the large leather-bound books
that held the historical pages of The Hockey News magazines. This
was often an arduous process: the older the issue, the more delicate
the pages were, so it was a difficult and time-consuming task.
Sometimes, you’d get lucky in your search – other times, you’d spend
hours until you finally found the particular article you were looking for.
But now, after more than 10,000 working hours spread across a
handful of multiple processes and key players, we are thrilled to
officially launch the long-anticipated The Hockey News Archive.
This new addition of content will, of course, save our staff countless
hours of research, but what we're especially excited about is that you,
as an avid reader and THN subscriber, hockey connoisseur or expert,
can also dive deep for yourself and find exactly what you’re looking for
in a matter of a few clicks.
The Archive has 2,640 issues and counting, about 156,000 articles for
individual reading, and more than 103,000 historical pages scanned
manually, so there’s a treasure trove of exclusive content at your
fingertips.
The Archive site design was created for ease of use and personalized
curation based on each unique visitor. The Archive brings together
more than 76 years of hockey history and puts it into a robust and
user-friendly interface that will continue growing with each new
magazine issue The Hockey News publishes.
There are a few issues and sub-brand magazines we’re currently
working to add and will continue to process as we continue expanding
our Archive. But we see the Archive as a living, breathing entity that
will only improve after we launch the Archive today.
Throughout the Archive, you’ll find hidden gems, from breaking news
articles of the past to iconic photoshoots we once did with the likes of
Bobby Orr, Mike Bossy, Wayne Gretzky, Sidney Crosby, Alex
Ovechkin, Connor McDavid and now, Connor Bedard.
For me personally, as a goaltender who has played at the NCAA,
European Women’s Hockey League and Canadian Women’s Hockey
League levels, the process of creating the Archive allowed me to
reminisce about childhood memories as I scrolled through the pages
of The Hockey News featuring Patrick Roy in his rookie days through
winning the cup in Montreal and Colorado. I hope others will
experience the same types of fond memories as they scroll through
our Archive and rediscover fascinating stories from the past.
With that said, everyone at The Hockey News invites you to subscribe
and amplify your experience as a hockey fan. No other hockey media
source has the history The Hockey News has, and we’re beyond
excited to share this exclusive content with you at THN.com/Archive.
