Not the Historic Newspapers I Wanted

This wasn’t what I had in mind for a collection of historic front pages of newspapers.

No, not at all. Newspapers covering big stories, yes. But not newspapers reporting their own demise.

With Ken’s departure from our radio staff a decade ago, I inherited his historic front pages from the Louisville-Courier Journal.

I hasten to add, these are replicas, not originals. Antiquarians would otherwise paper this blog entry with reproach when I tell them I had these historic front pages made into placemats by laminating them.

Our children have engaged us in some lively dinner table conversations about Lincoln’s assassination, Nixon’s resignation or the devastation of bombs dropped on Hiroshima.

Though the collection is still small, I feel more urgency as the mainstream media creaks, groans and gasps, even as people speak in glowing terms of how Internet news will replace it (and pay its way?)

My favorite is Quito’s El Comercio from early February 1997: Ecuador Wakes Up to Three Presidents. At the radio studios and newsroom we had stayed with the story throughout the night the president was removed by Congress, with succession to the Executive in dispute in the wee hours.


This past January I grabbed some Barak Obama print editions (the way I wanted to collect newspapers) and a friend in New York City tried for Nat Hentoff’s au revoir in the Village Voice. In Feburary, Harold scored in Colorado: I now possess a final edition of the Rocky Mountain News he picked up for me. (It won’t end up in plastic.)




Predictions are grim, such as that of Emily Morrell, who writes for UPI, a wire service that once had bureaus throughout the world. Citing former reporter Mark Potts, she says, "In the next five years the newspaper industry will be dead."

Gee, I could soon end up with several dozen historic newspapers. But it won’t be a collection that I am proud of.

Feb 1997 front page.Used with permission of El Comercio Group

Listen to live radio coverage of this 1997 event

Listen to a short devotional offered to listeners during the program.