Newspapers of the World started out of curiosity and interest for newspapers from other countries. Our goal is to collect physical newspapers from every country and territory before they totally disappear.
Chak, a trained journalist, social scientist and International Communicator believes that one of the best ways of learning about other cultures is by reading that culture’s newspapers.
Free newspaper from every newsroom
Some years back while working as a reporter, Chak travelled to a few countries in Africa and South America. She developed a habit of dropping by a local newsroom in each country she visited, asking for a free copy of a newspaper. Sometimes, when she didn’t have the time to do so, she would pass by a newsagent’s shop to buy a copy. What Chak didn’t realise was that she was actually a newspaper collector.
It finally sank in on one rainy Sunday morning. Chak was home by herself doing the rare spring cleaning, when she decided to sort out the rubble which had accumulated in her home-office over the years.
“The heap was just a small hill the last time I paid attention to it,” Chak reveals, “but on that rainy day, I was stunned to realise it had grown into a mountain.”
Crawling spider from a mountain of newspapers
As Chak was making attempts to ‘demolish’ the newspaper-mountain, she says a huge spider emerged from nowhere and crawled over her bare feet, and up to her legs, causing her to scamper around like a scared rat, demolishing the mountain of newspapers to sea level along the way.
A huge spider crawled over my bare feet, and up to my legs, causing me to scamper around like a scared rat…
– Chak
After surviving the threatening spider and the adrenalin back to neutral, Chak got back to clearing the mess created from the spider scare. In the clutter was a newspaper from Thailand, which she had bought for fun when she visited the country in 2002.
“This looks great, there’s no way I’m throwing it away,” Chak said of the Thai newspaper, which she could not read since she’s illiterate in Thai.
Newspaper excavation
Further digging into the mess ‘excavated’ newspapers from many more countries and territories Chak had visited over the years: Guyana, Kenya, Falkland Islands…
All of a sudden, the crumpled and neglected newspapers from Chak’s native country, Zambia, gave a new meaning. She retrieved the Zambian newspapers from the rubble, tossing them on the ‘keep’ pile, along with the Thai newspaper – and many more from other countries – including those from her newly adopted home, the Kingdom of Denmark.
On that chaotic day, Chak realised she was a newspaper hoarder with a capital H.
And so, on a day SUN-DAY broke the promise of sunshine, to become RAIN-DAY with a heavy downpour, followed by sparks of lightning, roars of thunder, and a raised adrenalin caused by a menacing spider, Newspapers of the World was born! (phew, that was a mouthful!)
Our newspaper collection is still of modest size, but it continues to grow.
NEWSPAPERS of the WORLD 