Houston paper puts out extra on Enron verdict

The Houston Chronicle rushed to newsstands on Thursday an estimated 10,000 extra editions of the paper noting the guilty verdicts of former Enron executives Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling, notes the New York Times.

Times reporter Julie Bosman wrote, “The editor of The Chronicle, Jeff Cohen, suggested an ‘extra,’ or a two-page edition that would wrap around Thursday’s paper, which was already on newsstands. (That paper’s lead headline: ‘D.C. in Tug of War on Immigration.’)

“So the newsroom went to work, piecing together the outlines of the special edition. Forty minutes later, the guilty verdicts were returned, and photos, illustrations, an article and a graph were put in place.

“By 1 p.m., the editorial staff was finished, and by 1:30 p.m. the presses were rolling. Before 2 p.m., 10,000 copies of the special edition had rolled off the presses.

“About a dozen Chronicle employees fanned out throughout the downtown area, pulling stacks of papers off newsstands and wrapping them with the special.

“Four employees were stationed in front of the courthouse downtown to hawk papers — for 50 cents each — to a swarm of reporters and spectators assembled there.”

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