Robb Montgomery

Yesterday morning in this blog I called the Chicago Sun-Times’ iconic Obama page one the best post-election front published anywhere. A few hours later, Chicago’s own Oprah Winfrey went on live TV holding a copy of that historic first edition “Mr. President” and agreed with my analysis.
“It was the best paper of all the papers in the world,” Winfrey told actor Will Smith during today’s live show in Chicago.

Today, I spent a couple more hours catching up with many of the rest of the world’s newspapers that had deadlines beyond the time zones possible to publish the news with authority yesterday. Do you spot any favorites?

Chicago’s presses were running non-stop yesterday
The Sun-Times’ Managing editor Don Hayner told Jim Romenesko that the Sun-Times’ printing facility on Ashland Avenue (which is far out of the path of tourists and city workers) was besieged by Chicagoans wanting to own a piece of history. Selling papers out of the press room? That’s also some sweet validation. Who wouldn’t want loyal readers like that?

I think the magic with that cover is that it projected so perfectly into the feeling and emotion on that morning after. By wisely not using images we had seen the night before on our TV screens and our Web screens the editor and designer transcended the news event and created a moment that resonated with readers in Chicago’s minority community on a level that other efforts couldn’t match.

Sun-Times editor Michael Cooke wrote to me this morning about the strong reaction, the massive additional press runs and his secret.

This is unbelievable !
The trick for an editor is to let good stuff happen - and I earned my pay this week by letting James’s page one happen.

James is James Smith the designer of the cover that the Sun-Times is now selling on everything from T-Shirts to posters. A full page ad in today’s paper listed an array of Obama Election night coverage merchandise and even replicas of the printing plates for their famous cover for only $25.

I linked to the Chicago Tribune’s merchandising efforts yesterday and I’ll link to the Sun-Times’ today.
Go here.

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