Record TV ratings on election night; frenzy over souvenir papers

Nov 6, 2008, 17:34 GMT

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.