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In Obama's victory, no need to hold the presses

November 12, 2008 12:36 am

OHIO AND Pennsyl- vania were in. The trend toward Barack Obama seemed clear. But it was still too early to call the election last Tuesday night as we neared our deadline.

So metro editor Phil Jenkins wrote a headline that summarized what we knew: "OBAMA CLOSES IN, WARNER WINS BIG."

Then, shortly after 11 p.m., came the word: More states had fallen into the Obama column. The Associated Press had determined that Barack Obama would receive enough electoral votes to become the 44th president of the United States.

Jenkins went back to the keyboard and tapped out a new headline: "OBAMA MARCHES TO HISTORIC VICTORY."

About an hour later, after Obama had given his acceptance speech, we stopped the press to substitute a new front page that featured a picture of the Obama family at the Chicago victory rally and that updated the story with this headline: "OBAMA IN VICTORY: 'CHANGE HAS COME.'"

So it went on election night, as the news broke right on deadline for the Wednesday Free Lance-Star. What a difference eight years make!

I can vividly remember that night in November 2000 when we kept updating the front page into the wee morning hours as news services first called Al Gore the winner, then George W. Bush, and then no one.

But this year the win was definitive and, as it turned out, the reader interest was sky-high.

We increased our normal press run for the Wednesday paper in anticipation of high demand. But interest was even higher than we expected.

Single-copy sales of the paper exceeded 9,000, a more than 50 percent increase over most Wednesdays. In fact, it was the highest total of single-copy sales since the two days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

But there was more than the historically high demand for papers that made this Election Day special at The Free Lance-Star.

Our Web coverage on fredericksburg.com was far more extensive than in previous years. Blogs from reporters and editors at polling places throughout the area provided almost "live coverage" of the day.

Constantly updated maps on the Web site gave users a quick overall look at the emerging patterns in Virginia and around the nation.

More than two dozen staffers added new information to the Web site, computed voting totals for the next day's paper, gathered pictures from parties here and in Northern Virginia, and copy-edited last-minute updates. Editorial page editor Paul Akers composed his thoughts for the next day's paper, as the trends emerged late in the evening.

It was an exhilarating end to an extraordinary campaign.

So what's next? In less than a month, I'll be moderating a debate in Richmond among the candidates for governor of Virginia in 2009.

In the Old Dominion, the campaign never ends.

Ed Jones: 540/374-5401
Email: edjones@freelancestar.com