Historic election reminds us: We do history every day
Note from Bob Smith, city editor for the DuPage editions of the Daily Herald, to his staff and other editors:
"I'm sure you've heard about the overwhelming demand for newspapers yesterday, about how so many people wanted keepsake editions to celebrate Barack Obama's victory.
"History was being made, and you know what? People wanted newspapers.
"Here's the thing we sometimes forget among all the gloom and doom we hear about our industry: History is made in a million ways every day. Of course, it's not on the scale of electing our first black president. But to the people directly involved, it's very nearly as important.
"It's hard, but I think we need to remember that in nearly everything we do. When we write a Neighbor to Know or a Lend a Hand or a high school play preview, it's really, really important to the people involved. They won't buy hundreds of thousands of newspapers, but they'll buy some because, for them, this is part of their personal history. It's something permanent. It's something that can't be manipulated on a computer screen. It's something they can keep and hold on to and, perhaps in some cases, even treasure.
"I wish as an industry we were better at reminding people of that.
"History is made every day. It's not always a groundbreaking presidential campaign, but ask a parent about their kid's soccer game or their concert. Ask a parent of a fallen Marine or the families of those people killed in the Aurora helicopter crash. Ask somebody who spends months laying the groundwork for one of our festivals. Ask somebody who gets a chance to meet a famous athlete or an author.
"Here's the coolest part: History is made every day and we get the chance to be a tiny part of it. It doesn't get much better than that."
Bob's words were especially poignant to me. My brother-in-law, Paul Feldman, died this past weekend following an incredibly long illness. I toiled as painstakingly as I ever have on this column to make sure I got the words right on the obituary my sister and I submitted to her local newspapers. It was our only chance to make sure we properly summed up and paid respect to Paul's life, his accomplishments and the people he touched. His personal history. I'm sure those few printed words will be saved by many for years to come.
I read Bob's note just after fielding a call from Sheila Carr of Woodridge, which is mostly outside our home-delivered circulation area. She had seen our Nov. 5 front page on a TV newscast, and wanted a few keepsake copies. Sheila was understandably frustrated after having gone to 13 different stores looking for a copy of Wednesday's paper. Says she bumped into several other people doing the same thing. Without prompting (or any knowledge of Bob's missive, of course), Sheila told me the reason she was scouring the landscape for a copy of Wednesday's Daily Herald: "This is history," she said, "People want this for their grandkids."
We didn't anticipate the extent of people's thirst for history, but we did print an extra 7,000 copies for the newsstands. "If we could do it over again, we'd print 70,000," said Jim Galetano, head of our circulation department.
But we're giving everyone another shot at that keepsake edition. (We're also planning a special section for Sunday marking Obama's landmark victory on Sunday.)
For today's newsstands and retail outlets, we have printed another 30,000 copies of Wednesday's main news section and inserted them into today's newspaper. Same amazingly low price of 75 cents.
Just in case you're still interested in hanging on to that particular piece of history.