Readership programs with New York Times, WSJ offer UK community educational resources, free access

Members of the University of Kentucky community can now access The New York Times (NYT) and its educational resources free of charge.

The UK College of Communication and Information, UK Libraries and the Student Government Association (SGA) have partnered with the NYT to provide the school-sponsored readership program to all students, faculty and staff.

“UK Student Government is proud to expand access to reliable news through The Wall Street Journal and now The New York Times,” said UK’s Student Body President Andrew Laws. “Through this partnership, our students can receive unlimited free access to both of these renowned news sources, allowing them to stay informed on the day's events at all times. We look forward to ensuring all UK students get free access to these subscriptions throughout the year.”

The university continues to offer a readership program with The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) free of charge, through a partnership with UK Libraries and SGA, first arranged by the Gatton College of Business and Economics in 2020. The partnership was renewed earlier this year. Both the WSJ and NYT agreements have been signed for three years.

Jennifer Greer, dean of the College of Communication and Information, ran campus readership programs at two previous universities. As the WSJ was already on campus, she signed on with SGA and UK Libraries to add access to the NYT. Providing access to news produced by journalists who abide by professional ethical standards is important in an era of misinformation, Greer said.

"These two papers also have varied editorial points of view, which helps set the stage for informed, robust debate essential for a functioning democracy," she said.

UK Libraries is the key to providing UK access, handling the logistics so that anyone with an @uky.edu email address can access the papers.

“UK Libraries is delighted to collaborate with the SGA, and the College of Communication and Information add access to The New York Times to the campus community,” said Kate Seago, director of acquisitions for UK Libraries. “These partnerships will bring a variety of perspectives on current topics and events. Both WSJ and NYT are rich resources for research.”

With this newest partnership, members have full digital access to NYT at NYTimes.com and through the app. Additionally NYT is offering a variety of learning tools for faculty and staff to use in the classroom.

Here is more the NYT readership program offers:

• unlimited access on NYTimes.com
• archives (dating back to 1851)
• unlimited access to two great learning tools: The New York Times in Education website and The Learning Network
• select events only open to subscribers
• Spanish and Mandarin Chinese versions of NYTimes.com
• all multimedia, including video, photography, VR features and new multimedia to come
• newsletters
• podcasts
• Daily 360 content — two-dimensional, 360° views
• augmented reality/virtual reality

How to activate your NYT membership:

New subscribers to NYT can visit accessnyt.com to create an account (register). Simply, type in the University of Kentucky as the school name and follow the instructions. Email edu@nytimes.com with any questions.

Existing registered subscribers with ACTIVE PAID subscriptions need to cancel their personal subscription by connecting with a chat agent on the site, or calling 800-698-4637 before creating an account. Once the subscription is canceled, they can visit accessnyt.com, type in the University of Kentucky as the school name and follow the instructions based on their location. Since the subscriber “Already has an account " they click “Log In" (found below "Create an Account"). Input their email address and the same “Password” created for their previous account.

Existing registered subscribers that DO NOT HAVE AN ACTIVE NYT subscription can visit accessnyt.com, type in the University of Kentucky as the school name and follow the instructions based on their location. Since the subscriber "Already has an account " they click “Log In" (found below "Create an Account"). Input their email address and the same “Password” created for their previous account.

Questions can be emailed to edu@nytimes.com for help.

More information about NYT can be found here.

More information about UK’s WSJ readership program, including how to activate your account can be found here.