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Extra editions are a rarity for modern-day newspapers.
With the onset of online editions came the opportunity for newspapers to keep readers up to date instantly as news breaks. Here, the Tribune Chronicle does that at www.tribtoday.com and via our Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Despite these modern conveniences, every now and then a very special, newsworthy occasion arises and we realize the value and importance of firing up the press to run extra editions hours after the regular edition was delivered.
Even in today's online world, we know readers still want to tuck away newsprint copies that capture and commemorate history.
One of those opportunities occurred last week.
It was about 2 a.m. Wednesday -- already nearly an hour past our normal press time. Although the presidential race was leaning toward Donald Trump, we still didn't have complete results. We knew we had to get the press started or fail our readers expecting to read Tuesday's election results over their morning coffee.
Facing this dilemma, many newspapers across America already had started to print without complete results.
After holding as long as we could, we went with a story containing the latest results and then huddled around our front page designer's computer debating the appropriate headline. Everyone in this business has had horrors of the "Dewey Defeats Truman" headline embarrassment, and we sure didn't want to go there.
The headline we settled on, "Trump Shocks," was fitting, we thought, because we believed at that point Trump would win, but it still left wiggle room in case he didn't.
By 10 a.m. I had returned to the newsroom after a short night's rest, preparing to go back to press for an extra edition with a new front page. It would include an updated story with complete results, state-by-state breakdown and coverage of the overnight congratulatory telephone calls from President Barack Obama and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton to President-elect Trump. The now definitive headline would be "Trump triumphs."
Downstairs, the press was idling, awaiting the new plates. The circulation department kicked into action, and the extra edition was on newsstands by noon.
Since I came to the Tribune Chronicle 21 years ago, I recall a handful of times when we added an extra edition. Of course we did it the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, with a headline that screamed: "ATTACK."
On Nov. 8, 2000, we released a special edition as the story developed throughout the day on whether Al Gore or George W. Bush would be the 43rd U.S. president.
Four years later, Nov. 3, 2004, we did it again, this time after legal questions arose about provisional ballots cast in Ohio for Sen. John Kerry and George W. Bush. "Ohio Counts," the clever headline which streamed across the front page that day, may be my favorite headline of all time.
On May 13, 2005, we blasted "Base stays" as an extra edition headline when the federal base realignment commission announced it would maintain the local Air Reserve Station in Vienna, a decision crucial to the Mahoning Valley's future economy.
In every instance, we believed an extra edition was warranted in order to serve our readership.
Just like readers gobbled up copies of Tribune Chronicle print editions containing special in-depth coverage of the Cleveland Indians' run for the World Series title in recent weeks, we know that even in this day of online news, people still want to own a piece of history that they can capture and share with their grandchildren one day.
Online coverage is remarkably fleeting. But newsprint? Now, that's something worth holding onto.
blinert@tribtoday.com