Abstract

This paper analyzes the situation of the archive departments in 14 of the Andalusian local newspapers. The aim is to update a similar study entitled “Situation of archive services in the daily press of Andalusia” (Aquesolo-Vegas, 1996) in which an analysis of these departments was performed for seven newspapers. This work studies, adapts, and extends the methodology of the above cited study to know how the situation has evolved since 1996. To that end, this field study is based on questionnaires sent to 16 Andalusian newspapers, two per province; 14 of which were completed. Aspects such as tasks, staff, facilities, and equipment are analyzed. The results show a technological restructuring, and also a reduction, or even the disappearance, of these services, due to the economic downturn. Therefore, journalists must now search for documents by themselves.