A Strange Global Phenomenon Occurred Wednesday – People Were Lining Up To Buy Newspapers, Many Outlets Sold Out, And Additional Press Runs Were The Order Of The Day

Philip M. Stone Novermber 6, 2008

Who says newspapers are dead? Readers all over the world flocked to their local newsstands Wednesday for their copy, or rather copies, of history – their local newspapers blasting the news that Barack Obama is the next President of the United States.

Many circulation managers were caught flat-footed. They thought there might be additional interest but not like what happened. In New York newsstands said they were out of the city’s three general interest newspapers – The Times, The Post, and The Daily News -- by 9 a.m. One newsstand owner told The Times, “I’ve turned away hundreds of people this morning. They said there are no papers anywhere.” They could have gone on EBay where some copies were being bid anywhere from $20 to $100.  

The Times had increased its print run by 35% but it wasn’t enough. Responding to customer complaints that they couldn’t get a copy in the morning, the newspaper printed another 50,000 for sale at major transit areas – railways stations and the like – for commuters on their way home. The newspaper says it will increase its print run for Thursday, too, but not by as much as Wednesday. Spokeswoman Catherine Mathis also said the newspaper’s web site broke records on Election Day with 55.1 million page views, beating the previous record by 29%.

The Daily News said it printed 100,000 additional copies as a second edition that was out by noon.

The Washington Post increased its print run by 30,000 but still quickly sold out so by mid Wednesday afternoon it came out with a 250,000-print run of a commemorative special edition, at double the normal newsstand price. It specifically noted the commemorative edition would not be part of the home delivery – if subscribers wanted this they had to pay through the nose like anyone else.  

In Chicago, Obama’s home town, the Tribune extended its print run by 200,000, after initially just printing an additional 20,000 copies. Someone sure got that one wrong! Over at the Sun Times, it bumped up its print run by 50%, found that wasn’t enough, rolled the presses again and ended up printing around 400,000 copies, twice its normal daily run.

A Dallas Morning News blogger wrote, “We've run out of newspapers, as collectors from throughout the Dallas region have grabbed up this morning's edition…We've printed 60,000 more, and we're distributing them as fast as we can….In the meantime, news racks have been stripped clean. Stacks are gone from stores. Since early morning, there's been a steady stream of folks driving down to buy a copy at our building. One veteran of our circulation department said, ‘I've been in this business 43 years and have never seen anything like this. 9-11, Shuttle crash, Super Bowl wins, nothing matches this kind of interest.’"

And some savvy publishers saw a quick way to make a buck. The Fayetteville Observer in North Carolina, not only made a second press run, delivering newspapers in the late afternoon, but also offered commemorative laminated copies of the front page at $40 each. Besides the Washington Post’s commemorative edition, the Chicago Tribune also had a commemorative poster featuring the front page with the headline, “Own a piece of history.”

One of the best explanations for what was going on came from Digby Solomon, publisher of the Daily Press, in Newport News, Virginia. “We anticipated some additional demand, but this was an historic election… and (we) completely underestimated it, It shows that when something truly historic takes place, people want a printed record of it.”

Washington Times President and Publisher Thomas McDevitt ordered an additional print run. “People wanted to show it to their children...they want to hold onto it for the future." At the popular B and K News Stand in the US capital newspaper racks were empty by 10 a.m. And it was that way elsewhere. In Green Bay, Wisconsin, within an hour of opening, Bosse's News Stand sold out of several major newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Chicago Tribune.

So, people really do remember there are newspapers out there; and they truly appreciate their newspaper when there is a really great story. Surely there’s a message there for publishers that if they put out a quality editorial product that its populace is really interested in, then print newspapers do just fine. Sure, the election of a Black man as President of the United States was historic and exceptional, but it goes to show people have not forgotten newspapers, and newspapers need to keep coming out with editorial products that people want to read, even keep.

People bought these newspapers as a cheap way of having history that they can pass down to the next generation. The Daily Press spoke with Bill Cox who bought 100 of the newspaper’s Extra. “It’s history, man,” he said. He says he’ll keep a few copies and give the rest to family and friends so they can pass them along to their children, too.  People were seen buying protective covers – this was one issue of the newspaper that wasn’t going to get tossed or cover the bottom of the birdcage.

The Newseum in Washington receives around 600 PDF copies of US and international newspapers daily and places a representative number of them behind glass in a display on the street in front of the museum. It didn’t take much of a glance to see that front pages around the world on Wednesday featured just one man – Barack Obama.

Obama’s last campaign stop on Election Day was in Indianapolis, and he actually won Indiana – usually a Republican stronghold – by a very narrow margin. The Indianapolis Star increased its Wednesday run by 60% but that still wasn’t enough. Customers came to the newspaper complaining they couldn’t find newsstand copies  and the newspaper’s customer service department soon ran out of the 50 copies it had on hand.

John Kridelbaugh, vice president of market development and digital, said the newspaper was considering issuing its own package that included the Election Day edition and some other coverage, and perhaps it would issue a commemorative poster of the historic front page that would be suitable for framing.

In Detroit, which voted heavily for Obama, The News and the Free Press printed an additional 30,000 copies And John Morey, director of single-copy sales, said sales exceeded those for recent sports championships. "I've never seen it like this," Morey said as he and others hawked the papers on the sidewalk in front of the newspaper’s building. Some people bought up to a couple of dozen editions.

But perhaps what newspaper publishers need to remember most – they could do a lot worse than use it as a tagline for an advertising campaign reminding the public  that newspapers are published every day, not just the day after Election Day – is what Shirley Holman, 59, of Dallas said: Seeing the news in print "makes it real."