It is Truman — NOT Dewey!

Every publisher’s nightmare is summed up in the Chicago Daily Tribune November 3, 1948 headline that is arguably the most famous headline in the newspaper’s 150-year history.

We all know that presidential candidate Governor Thomas Dewey of New York did not defeat President Harry S. Truman in the November 2nd election, however, everyone didn’t know that the day after the election – or at least they didn’t know about it at the same time.

The way we stay informed of news today and the way we stayed informed of news sixty years ago is dramatically different. The same is true of the way news was gathered and distributed as recently as ten years ago.

In the 1950’s, reporters phoned their local stories to copy writers on news desks. In the 1990’s, wire services like UPI and AP spread the word to their subscribing members nationally and around the globe. Today, new multimedia technologies such as cell phones and palm-held PDA’s routinely inform news sources of breaking stories through e-mail and other electronic messaging systems.

As consumers of news stories, we are more likely to learn about what is going on in our world through our Blackberry, over satellite radio or the Internet than through the ink and newsprint of the past three or four generations.

Historic City News was founded in today’s technology. We don’t have the burden of a multi-million dollar facility or elaborate printing presses that were virtually outdated soon after they were installed. News is happening and events are changing too quickly to rely on anything short of instant communications; so we use the Internet to supply our readers with the information they want as quickly as it is available.

Like most newspapers in 1948, the Tribune was lulled into a false sense of security by polls that repeatedly predicted a Dewey victory. The Tribune even dismissed Truman on its editorial page as a “nincompoop”. So, when the printer’s strike forced the story to go to press hours before it normally would in order to meet the first-edition deadline, the Tribune’s managing editor relied on his Washington correspondent for a decision and the rest is publishing history.

We enjoy the ability to publish information that is known in the morning because any mid-day change is easily updated as it occurs. There is no need for us to publish 11 various editions as the Tribune did before they got the story right.

With that said, I am excited to let you in on some news of our own. Plans are underway that will enhance the completeness of our content and significantly increase our Internet distribution in the coming weeks. As these plans are formalized and we begin putting them into action, we will keep you informed of our progress. Look for Historic City News to grow into the premier provider of local news in St. Augustine and St. Johns County, Florida with each passing day.