As consumption goes online, classifieds flee to craigslist, and circulation drops, print media gets a tough time these days.
But for the Gray Lady at least, November 5th was a reprieve.
The day after Barack Obama’s election, America knew she was witnessing history, and snatched up the newspapers to prove it.
The New York Times though they could handle the extra demand with an additional printing of 150,000 copies, but ultimately needed a second run of 75,000, totaling 225,000.
Likewise Washington Post printed an extra 350,000, and the Chicago Tribune 200,000.
As Richard Perez-Pena wrote in the New York Times, " for a day, at least, newspapers were cool."
Onsite at New York Times headquarters on November 6th, I saw firsthand that the craze was still going strong. People were lined up in the lobby all day to get limited copies of the paper, some of which ended up fetching up to $650 on eBay.
I shot the video below of the scene. What I missed afterwards was the spontaneous appearance of a smiling Arthur Sulzberger Jr. — the publisher of the paper– in the lobby. Sulzberger waved, shook one man’s hand, and bowed out of the building.