Fairfield library to offer free access to New York Times, Wall Street Journal

Fairfield Public Library is now offering free online access to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal through the library’s website.

The addition of these new resource was deemed necessary after The New York Times ceased delivery of their print edition to the City of Fairfield and the Southeast Iowa region in late 2022. As recently as December of last year, Fairfield Public Library had received the Sunday edition of the New York Times but the library’s vendor discontinued service without any explanation.

Library staff at Kalona Public Library and Washington Public Library reported to Fairfield Library Director Al Schmidt Mickunas that their libraries have not subscribed to the print edition of The New York Times for over three years. However, Burlington Public Library and North Liberty Public Library, both of which serve communities roughly twice the size of Fairfield, began offering digital access to nationally syndicated newspapers during the pandemic.

Director Schmidt Mickunas decided the library should offer free online community subscriptions to both The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal in order to ensure that community members with different political viewpoints would have access to their preferred reporting. Both newspapers offered by the library are known for their close-to-center perspectives as compared to other mainstream media sources; however, according to the widely circulated Ad Fontes Media Bias chart, The New York Times is considered to have a slight liberal political bias while The Wall Street Journal is known for being equally conservative. Both subscriptions are funded by the generous donations of Fairfield Public Library cardholders.

Library users may access these new resources at home or on-the-go by navigating to the “Newspaper Online Editions” page under “Online Resources” on the Fairfield Public Library’s website. Redeeming a code for up to three days of access is as easy as clicking a link for one of the two offerings and signing into one’s personal newspaper account.

In addition to newspaper access, the library will be sharing additional new digital resources for Fairfield and Jefferson County residents in the coming weeks.