There's gold in them there content archives

The internet has suddenly opened up new opportunities in archive content. Here’s a few examples I’ve collected over the last few months:

• The New York Times has a Tumblr focused on its archive photos
• Marks & Spencer is using its archive of lingerie images on its social site
• Country Life is doing wonders with its photo archive (like this set of Eltham Palace images, found via Fur Coat & No Knickers)
• Vogue has a very serious business model for its archive content.

Around a decade or so ago, a new editor on a magazine I was working on pretty much binned the whole archive of photos the magazine had. Anything over three years old? Gone. Decades of built environments images swept away.

That’s the sort of short-sighted, now-focused thinking that’s crippling so many publishing organisations. For all our obsession with news and the latest thing, people have both a passion and, often, good business reasons for being interested in the past of an industry.

What value lies in your archives?