There was a run on President-elect Barack Obama pages nationwide. New York newsstands turned people away. The Washington Post printed 600,000 extra copies. The Chicago Sun-Times sold out of its "Mr. President" cover, despite printing 50 percent more than its regular run. And The Salt Lake Tribune printed 30 percent more for street sales. A reader from France requested a copy of Wednesday's four-page wrap.

The Poynter Institute is publishing a collection of front pages from the day - in time for the holidays, or at least Inauguration Day.

"When there's a really big event, people are interested in having their own copy of a paper," says Rick Edmonds, media business analyst for Poynter. "For some reason, it's a little bit more real when it's there in print - something you can hold in your hands."

But Thursday, it was back to the dismal newspaper business as usual.

Last month, the East Valley Tribune, which covers Mesa, Gilbert and Chandler, Ariz., cut its print versions from seven days a week to four. Starting April 1, the 100-year-old Christian Science Monitor will cease printing altogether - except for a weekend edition. And soon, The Tribune will scale back its Monday paper.

Although millions of Americans tried to capture a bit of history in a scrap of newsprint Nov. 5, the lines at newsstands said it all: Americans didn't have copies of the newspapers at home.

Pulp is the way of the past.

Newspapers across the country are slicing jobs and paring pages. Circulation is down at The Tribune by 5 percent. As old-school readers die off, they take their subscriptions with them.

The same 18-29 demographic that turned out in droves - 18 percent of 2008 voters, 24 million strong - to put Obama in the White House is not replacing them. Young voters do not read on dead trees. They download books to Kindles and click newspaper stories and blogs on Dell laptops. They might have collected newspaper covers last week, but they did not subscribe.

"People know what a newspaper is. They'll go get it when they really want it," says Edmonds. "But that doesn't mean they'll change their habits."

After the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Edmonds says, there was a slight surge in newspaper subscriptions. But eventually, those gains went away.

So, while there's something reassuring about people clasping newsprint in their hands the day after a historic election, that too will pass.

And four years from now, there will be fewer covers to collect.

walsh@sltrib.com