Los Angeles - Barack Obama's historic victory in the
presidential election was followed by a record 70 million viewers on
live US television, according to figures released Thursday.
This was a dramatic increase from the 60 million viewers who
watched the results of the 2004 election.
Millions more Americans also followed the results online, with the
most popular news sites - Yahoo, MSNBC and CNN - all getting about 12
million unique visitors each, according to Nielsen Online.
The record-breaking interest was reflected in a frenzy for
souvenir newspapers that proclaimed Obama the next president, with
Americans forming long lines Wednesday to buy copies. But many
returned disappointed after the Washington Post, New York Times,
Chicago Tribune and other papers sold out early despite dramatically
increasing their press runs.
The Chicago Tribune, Obama's hometown newspaper, sold out of an
extra 200,000 papers, and was even selling framed copies of its front
page for 99 dollars. The New York Times printed an extra 50,000
copies and the Washington Post an additional 150,000 copies of a
special edition. USA Today was to print an extra 500,000 copies. Many
other newspapers also printed commemorative editions.
'This is a physical record of history being made,' said Robert de
la Madrid, who had tried five different locations before finally
landing copies of the Los Angeles Times at the paper's headquarters.
'As soon as you close the computer screen, that image is gone. And
you can't frame the Internet,' he said.
The internet still had an important role to play, however, as
dozens of the historic newspapers were offered for sale on listings
sites such as Craigslist and eBay - where a single copy of the New
York Times was up for auction at 400 dollars.
USA
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