As part of its exhaustive, year-long JFK50 series, the Dallas Morning News is selling copies of its Nov. 23, 1963, edition with the page-one headline, “Kennedy Slain on Dallas Street.” You’ve probably seen the paper on sale at 7-Elevens around town. But until I spotted an ad for the “keepsake replica” in The Tennessean newspaper in Nashville Monday—and then saw copies of the edition for sale at the airport in Atlanta—I didn’t realize it was being offered by the DMN not just locally but nationally as well.
According to Alison Engel, A.H. Belo Corp. senior VP/chief financial officer, the Morning News approached USA Today/Gannett a few months ago about marketing the issue nationally after the head of the DMN circulation department, Chip Danneker, came up with the idea. (In June, of course, it was announced that Gannett Co. would acquire TV company Belo Corp.—not A.H. Belo, the newspaper outfit—for about $2.2 billion.) Under the partnership, anywhere from 100,000 to 200,000 copies of the 1963 paper are being sold at Gannett retail locations and though other properties controlled by USA Today/Gannett. Says Engel: “We’re very happy to have entered into the partnership … and are happy with the results.”
The edition in Atlanta was priced at $4.95 (versus $3.95 locally), and Belo gets a royalty for each copy sold. Engel says the ’63 edition is the only piece of Kennedy memorabilia being marketed nationally by the DMN with Gannett. The Dallas paper’s website also sells a Commemorative Boxed Set of assassination-related materials for $29.99, and a hard-bound book of assassination notes by the paper’s reporters for $39.95.
