Newspapers make hay in sunshine of Obama's victory

A woman views the front pages of Wednesday's newspapers from around the world on display outside the Newseum in Washington DC after Barack Obama's presidential election victory. Photograph: Molly Riley/Reuters

JAMES RAINEY

MEDIA: APPARENTLY LOOKING for something old to go with something new (Barack Obama) and something blue (a more Democratic Congress), the American people bought newspapers in huge numbers on Wednesday after the historic election of the nation's first black president.

From the US's largest daily, USA Today , to more modest broadsheets, newspapers expanded press runs to accommodate increased sales. Some sold special gift editions and framed front pages. But even the expanded production left many newsracks empty and consumers scrambling to snag a memento. Readers lined up from Los Angeles to Miami to buy copies of their daily paper.

The Chicago Tribune sold framed front pages for as much as $99. A single copy of Wednesday's New York Times sold on e-Bay for a reported $249.99. One man bought 100 copies of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution at 75 cents apiece and immediately turned to selling them at a modest 25-cent mark-up. The Atlanta paper initially printed 55,000 extra papers to supplement its typical weekday press run of 375,000. But that did not meet demand, and it ended up printing an extra 150,000 copies.

USA Today boosted its typical press run of about two million by 500,000. The Washington Post , the fourth-largest paper by circulation, printed 30 per cent more papers and then 350,000 commemorative papers, which it sold for $1.50, triple the normal newsstand price. The New York Times printed 50,000 extra copies, the Chicago Tribune an extra 200,000.

The Los Angeles Times printed 107,000 papers above its 750,000 regular weekday press run. The paper sold them at retail outlets because so many copies were being pilfered from news stands.

Papers have been suffering as readers and advertisers increasingly shift to the internet. But "I think there is an authority and finality, a sort of last word that comes from the printed edition of the newspaper," said Steve Hills of Washington Post Media.

"This is a physical record of history being made," said lawyer Robert de la Madrid, who had tried five locations before finally finding a couple of copies of the LA Times . "You can't frame the internet."

Even as they touted the interest in their print editions, newspaper executives said their websites remained the key outlet for many customers. Several papers reported their online editions drawing record traffic, including the Washington Post , which topped its previous high of 15.2 million daily page views. The LA Times hit a record 8.3 million page views.

- (LA Times-Washington Post service)