HighBeam Research

HighBeam Research was a paid search engine and full text online archive owned by Gale, a subsidiary of Cengage, for thousands of newspapers, magazines, academic journals, newswires, trade magazines, and encyclopedias in English.[1] It was headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.[2] In late 2018, the archive was shut down and redirected to the Questia Online Library.[3]

HighBeam Research
HighBeam Research logo since February 2004
OwnerGale (Cengage)
URLwww.highbeam.com
LaunchedAugust 2002 (2002-08)
Current statusDefunct
Content license
Copyright
All rights reserved

History

The company was established in August 2002 after Patrick Spain, who had just sold Hoover's, which he had co-founded, bought eLibrary and Encyclopedia.com from Tucows. The new company was called Alacritude, LLC (a combination of Alacrity and Attitude). ELibrary had a library of 1,200 newspaper, magazine and radio/TV transcript archives that were generally not freely available.[4]

Original investors included Prism Opportunity Fund of Chicago and 1 to 1 Ventures of Stamford, Connecticut.

Spain stated, "There was a glaring gap between free search like Google and high-end offerings like LexisNexis and Factiva."[5]

Later in 2002, it bought Researchville.com. By 2003, it had increased its archive base to articles from 2,600 publishers. In 2004, it was renamed HighBeam Research. In 2005, it increased its publisher base to 3,500 publishers. In 2006, Oxford University Press, Knight Ridder and The Washington Post archives were added. In 2008, it was purchased by Gale, a subsidiary of Cengage.[6] Highbeam featured many articles by the UK based Trinity Mirror Group.

Until late 2018, Highbeam Research was a partner in the Womensforum network and a major content provider for the WomensForum women's issues research website.[7]

Highbeam Research shut down in late 2018 after 16 years.[3]

References
  1. "Publications by category". HighBeam Research. Cengage Learning. Archived from the original on April 27, 2011. Retrieved July 14, 2014.
  2. "Contact Us." HighBeam Research. Retrieved September 24, 2012. "HighBeam Research c/o Cengage Learning 1 North State Street Suite 900 Chicago, IL 60602 USA"
  3. "About Questia". Questia Online Library. Retrieved December 20, 2018.
  4. "About Us". HighBeam Research. Archived from the original on July 28, 2011. Retrieved March 23, 2012.
  5. "Q&A: Patrick Spain, Founder HighBeam". InterNetNews. February 20, 2004. Retrieved October 6, 2012.
  6. Gwen (December 16, 2008). "Gale Acquired HighBeam Research". Web search guide. Archived from the original on March 5, 2012. Retrieved December 4, 2016.
  7. "Highbeam Research is a WomensForum Network Partner". WomensForum. Retrieved October 6, 2012.
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