THE BORDER REPORT

I've been watching some major voices in the U.S. news media preening over the record copies of newspapers that were sold the day after last week's elections. News executives seem to believe last Wednesday's edition of their newspapers reached the heights of the Dead Sea Scrolls when the reality seems is more like that of defunct baseball cards. Some of the nation's largest newspapers, including The New York Times and the Washington Post printed off thousands of extra editions. The Post put out an extra 600,000 and the Chicago Tribune printed an extra 200,000 copies while Time Magazine tossed out an extra 100,000. The Chicago Sun-Times reports one man ran up to a delivery truck and snatched up 300 copies himself. No real surprise there; Barack Obama's win will likely go down as a major moment in U.S. history. I remember the last Major Moment, the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, provoked the same reaction. I won't forget that following day easily, thinking I'd beat the crowds to the newsstands in San Diego, I jogged down to the local magazine store at 6 a.m. – only to find that every copy of the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times had already been snatched up (copies of the San Diego Union-Tribune were still available). Now, a week after the elections, media executives are boasting about the power of print, pointing at the sellout editions as a strong example of the longevity of their product. Here's Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham: "It's an interesting vote of confidence for print," he says. "If you want to hold onto something for commemorative purposes, you can't hold onto a Web page." Even news media analyst Alan D. Mutter jumped onboard, writing this morning: "It is a welcome confirmation, because it shows people still value a newspaper as perhaps the most authoritative and tangible artifact of a memorable event." Well, no. A resounding no. Here's the dirty little secret behind last Wednesday's sellout newspapers; from a little thing called eBay: New York Times mint condition: $44.95 Chicago  Tribune: $4.79 In fact, a cursory search of eBay using "barack obama newspapers" turns up 2,045 hits. Here's a whole load of them (click to enlarge): I don't doubt there's some newspaper readers out there who lined up last Wednesday to buy the newspaper out of emotive resonance. But let's be honest, most people who love newspapers that deeply already have a subscription to the papers they want to keep a commemorative copy of. The rest of the buyers no doubt wanted a copy because, like rare coins or stamps, some day those papers are going to be really hard to find. As for Meacham's comments, well, he's probably right, nobody's going to print out this posting of The Border Report and sell it on eBay – though if you do, remember my cut.