Readers of two sister newspapers are being urged to vote for them to be the next titles immortalised in the British Newspaper Archive.

The Worcester News and Berrow’s Worcester Journal are bidding to become the next papers to be digitised in a project by the British Library.

The library is working with family tree website findmypast to digitise up to 40 million newspaper pages from its vast collection over the next 10 years.

An online poll currently has shipping journal Lloyd’s List as the most popular choice, but John Wilson, who serves as deputy editor of both the Worcester titles, has urged readers to vote for them instead.

Worcester News reader Terry Layland with an archived volume of editions of the newspaper

He said: “We are dedicated to making the stories of local life we have covered over the centuries available to as many people as possible.

“So we urge all those interested in local history to visit the British Newspaper Archive website and make Worcestershire a priority for digitisation.”

HTFP reported last year that the News giving away 57 years’ worth of archived copies after completing a project to store them all on microfilm in a local library.

Around 500 volumes of newspapers totalling more than 15,000 individual editions were made available as part of the initiative.