A lot has been written over the last 24 hours about the value of print as a keepsake, citing the extraordinary sales of newspapers in the US following the win of Barack Obama in the presidential election. The LA Times sums the story up well. As someone said today, you can’t past a computer screen in your scrapbook.
I see irony in an old and challenged medium being so in demand in reporting the election of a candidate who’s mantra is all about change.
I have read some commentators interpreting the sell-outs today as an opportunity for print. I don’t see it that way. The newspapers were there and people bought them. Other mementos of the occasion would be as popular. What newspapers do offer which is key to today’s results availability. Distribution, in the US and here is as important as ever. If only the distribution network newsagents offered was valued more.