University of Kentucky students and affiliates can access The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal for free with their university emails.

The partnership with NYT was headed by UK Libraries, the College of Communication and Information and UK’s Student Government Association and launched in September 2022. UK Libraries and the Student Government Association also partnered with the Wall Street Journal.

Brandon Erby, an assistant professor in the Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Studies department and affiliated faculty in African American and Africana studies, makes use of The New York Times often in his classes.

When assigning an article from The New York Times, Erby includes instructions for students to set up their student accounts.

“I know that, for me, I like to assign texts that deal with current issues and popular issues,” Erby said. “So, if I’m asking students to access these materials and these websites, I want them to be able to read the things that I asked him to take a look at. So, it has become standard practice with me at the beginning of (the) semester.”

Without a subscription, articles from both WSJ and NYT are “paywalled,” meaning the reader has to pay for a subscription if they want to view the content. 

“When we have sources that are behind paywall or you need to have a subscription to access them, I think you’re excluding a lot of people from receiving information or receiving content, receiving knowledge,” Erby said. “And so, I think that complimentary access is important because it just broadens our ability to be knowledgeable citizens.” 

Jen Martin, the outreach and engagement coordinator for UK Libraries, said there is a lot more to a New York Times or Wall Street Journal subscription than just reading articles. Podcasts, lesson plans and more are available through the New York Times app and website, while the Wall Street Journal allows readers to access both current and previous issues and do crosswords. 

“With these sources, you get all of the graphics, all the podcasts, everything that paid users get,” Martin said.

In addition to WSJ and NYT, UK Libraries offers access to the full Vogue archive. This archive can be found through the UK Libraries database website.

Martin said that with misinformation being a major cause of concern in journalism and the news at large, having trusted sources may help to mitigate that. 

“These two newspapers are held to the highest standards of journalism, and so the hope is that any misinformation or information that is out of date will be corrected as soon as possible,” Martin said. “And therefore, you’re going to get the most reliable information at your fingertips instead of reading something on social media that then is debunked. You can rely on going to The New York Times or the Wall Street Journal and getting the most accurate information.”

Many students may not be aware of their access to NYT and WSJ, though. Freshman kinesiology major McKenna Major said she was not. Previously, if she had to read an article from The New York Times or Wall Street Journal for class, she would email her professors for an alternate way to read it.

“I think it’s important for like things like classes, because you can use them in a lot of your papers and your classwork. I know a lot of people love Wordle, and Wordle is through New York Times so you can access more with the subscription,” Major said.

Help accessing and traversing The New York Times and Wall Street Journal sites is available through UK Libraries. 

“We have in-person help around the clock and on our website, where you would access and sign up for The New York Times and Wall Street Journal, we have a chat function. And, so, if you ever need any help, just look for the green chat button and that will connect you to somebody. Never feel afraid to reach out even if you think it is the simplest of questions,” Martin said.Instructions on how students can activate these memberships can be found on UKNOW for The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.