November 12, 2008
WaPo Special Election Edition Hype: Officially Silly?
We understood why people were clamoring to buy last Wednesday's Washington Post, the one that declared that President-Elect Obama had made history. And sure, it made a certain amount of sense that D.C. residents started lining up at CVS that evening to snag a copy of the special $1.50 commemorative edition that came out later in the day, after the regular paper completely sold out. This was a huge moment in the history of this country, and even if the Washington Post ended up going with a pretty boring design for its cover, this is still the major paper of Washington, D.C., the center of American politics.
But $9.95 plus shipping for a newspaper? And would you really consider ordering and wearing a sweatshirt depicting the front page on it? Related: the Washington Post has to use CafePress? They can't afford to sell their own coffee mugs?
| 
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
email this
add to facebook
add to del.icio.us
[ report this ]
Yea, I think it is pretty silly- especially since the actual print design wasn't that special, there wasn't a lot of cool extra content either, in fact it was a rather thin issue. My roommmate's mom works at the WP so I got a copy that way- I think the more remarkable occurance was that by 7am Nov 5th every newspaper stand, CVS, Giant and coin machine in the city (or at least Gtown to Friendship) was out of every NYTimes, USA Today, WPost and others- THAT DAY, NYTimes were listed on Ebay for $100-300 each- check the screen shots here: http://adamdexter.wordpress.com/2008/11/05/obama-nation-newspapers/
As far as WPost on Cafepress, that's just amusing.
[ report this ]
Can't touch this..
[ report this ]
As a fan of the Obama family, presidential history and print journalism I'm dismayed we are not given the thong option so commonly available at cafepress sites. Some democracy this. Voter suppression in its most vile form.
[ report this ]
I am glad that millions of Americans are celebrating the shift to a more responsible environmental leadership, in Obama, by cutting down a crap load of trees.
[ report this ]
The advantage of the printed edition is that you can't squash a bug with a Blackberry or an LCD screen.
Hm. Or can you? I'll be right back.
[ report this ]
If you head to union station, there is a dude standing outside of the first street side selling them
[ report this ]
The Washington Post has fallen mightily, and resorting to selling cheap sweatshirts on the amateurish Cafepress Web site is but one sign of this.
[ report this ]
anyone paying the $10 pretty much deserves to be swindled. they must have published tons of extras of the special edition because there are still people selling them outside union station and in chinatown everyday. total market saturation on these already, i think. it's just not that good a cover page. good story, don't get me wrong, but i'm guessing a lot of other papers did something more aesthetically balanced.
confession - i was kind of tempted to buy the cafepress onesie for my niece
confession 2 - i bought one of the special editions. but for $2 on the street.
[ report this ]
$9.95 plus shipping is pretty ridic considering the Harris Teeter in Pentagon City has had a huge untouched stack of these since last week and I'm sure it's not the only store around with papers left.
[ report this ]
I'm in Fargo and missed out on all the DC election hype, but wasn't even slightly tempted to buy a $10 newspaper.
[ report this ]
Commemorative newspaper? I thought that used to be called "a newspaper." I am sure I will be in some antique store with my cyborg kids in 30 years and see a stack of these in the corner for $150.00 each (Adjusted for inflation, 150 2038 dollars is worth about $1.50 in 2008 dollar)
So quaint that a 20th century device is used to commemorate a 21st century event.
[ report this ]
I noticed a foo-foo display of the "Commemorative Edition" papers at CVS, blocking the aisles. A day late and a dollar fifty short.
I would buy several commemorative cafe press thongs, so I could CHANGE them every day. Get it? Change? Ha, I kill myself!
[ report this ]
Why pay $9.95 when you can pay $59.95??
http://pictopia.com/perl/gal?process=gallery&gallery_id=63481&provider_id=25&ptp_photo_id=wpost:6609825
[ report this ]
So, why can't I just get a copy from the archive office, since that's their job anyway?
[ report this ]
Also, why are the prices in that fancy schmancy English L-looking thing?