Osama bin Laden, newspapers ... and very cool news from the Newseum

As someone who has loved newspapers just about his entire life, I always appreciate the massively newsworthy events that drive people to buy a newspaper as a keepsake or collector's item. The death of Osama bin Laden was one of these events. The Associated Press even wrote an article about how newspapers saw a surge in demand due this news.

This should be no surprise, but I'm a part of this crowd. I have not only newspapers but also Time and Newsweek magazines from the turn of the millennium, the drawn-out 2000 presidential election, September 11 and the following days (including the Democrat and Chronicle that was published the afternoon of September 11), the War in Iraq and the capture of Saddam Hussein.

The September 11-related editions of the Democrat and Chronicle represent a great deal to me. Not only are they, at their very basic, a reminder of what happened to America that day, but they also carry personal memories. The "CHAOS" afternoon edition was the one my dad drove around town with me trying to find. The "TERROR" September 12 edition was the one I consumed the following day. It's still surreal to me that after collecting those newspapers as a tenth grader, I sat in the Democrat and Chronicle newsroom almost ten years later and was the one to type the "BIN LADEN DEAD" headline. Just as I saved someone else's work back in 2001, people across Rochester will now hold onto the newspaper I helped produce Sunday night.

Actually, as I discovered earlier today, this edition is going to have a presence beyond just our community. If you read through the Associated Press article, you'll find this nugget toward the end:

The Newseum will save Monday's front pages and post them in the museum's permanent 9/11 exhibit, which also features the broadcast tower that once stood atop the World Trade Center.

I made it to the Newseum last summer for the first time, and I highly encourage anyone who visits Washington, D.C., to make it a priority to get there. The Newseum is better than any of the Smithsonians and represents so much more than just the news medium. They're retelling history through the lens of the media. The 9/11 exhibit at the Newseum currently has a wall of September 12 newspapers on it. You can spot the Democrat and Chronicle on it. That I designed a cover that will now be a part of that exhibit is an honor.

There are a lot of rough days working in the newspaper industry. Days like these past few, news like the death of Osama bin Laden – this is what I got into the business for, and it's when I'm reminded why I love it. I'm so glad I got to play my small role in bringing the news to the world.