Newspaper boxes and stands across Chicago sold out early Wednesday, the day after the history-making election of the nation's first black president.
On Tuesday afternoon, both of Chicago's daily newspapers printed and made available extra copies of the day's edition, with headlines declaring Barack Obama our new president.
About 100 people crowded the lobby of the Tribune Tower at about 2 p.m. Wednesday clamoring for a copy of their own.
"We knew this would be an incredible issue," a spokesman for the Chicago Tribune is quoted by Crain's Chicago Business as saying.
The Tribune company has also printed posters of the historic front page and is selling those for $3 each.
Also on Tuesday, The Chicago Sun-Times announced it would have extra copies for sale at their store at 350 N. Orleans.
The Sun-Times bumped up its print run by 50% in anticipation of heavy sales, Crain's reported, but that wasn’t enough to satisfy demand, a spokeswoman said. The presses were fired up again Wednesday morning to pump out more copies. All told, the paper produced 405,000 copies for newsstands, twice its typical run.
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"Our Sun-Times store is incredibly busy and people are driving to our Ashland (Avenue) plant to buy papers from the guard at the plant entrance," she said.
It's a great day to be a newspaper, the Web site Gawker.com said, noting that the New York Times and the Washington Post were also experiencing high demand.
