Newspapers from Austin to Boston scrambled early Wednesday to stop the presses, rewrite headlines and recall newspapers that declared George W. Bush the next president of the United States.
The Orlando Sentinel had four press runs, changing its headline from “Oh, so close” early in the evening to “It’s Bush” when Vice President Al Gore’s concession phone call to Bush was announced. That became “Is it Bush?” when Florida’s votes came into question, and finally “Contested” when it became clear that no winner would be immediately declared.
“We did the best we could with the best information we had at the time,” said Bob Shaw, deputy managing editor for Topics. Shaw said the political news staff worked around the clock sorting through the ever-shifting news.
The Miami Herald’s first statewide edition read “Too close to call.” A banner “Bush wins” appeared in a later regional edition. The newspaper’s last take on the story was “Not over yet.'”
In Tallahassee, the Tallahassee Democrat put out an edition with the headline “It’s President Bush.” That edition was on its way to readers about 4:30 a.m. when delivery drivers were called back. By hand, newspaper workers rewrapped the paper with a front section reading “Down to the wire.”
In Texas, the Austin American-Statesman recalled up to 59,000 copies of its paper and delivered editions late to many subscribers.
The Raleigh, N.C., the News & Observer distributed more than half of its full run of papers with the headline “Bush Wins” before switching to “Bush Leads.” Even the venerable New York Times released about 100,000 newspapers stating Bush “appears” to have won.
Internet staffs also worked round-the-clock to keep up with the changing news.
“We probably changed our election headline a dozen times,” said Mike Dame, executive producer of orlandosentinel.com.
