I knew it wouldn’t be enough. I knew 3 million wouldn’t be enough just for France, let alone everywhere else.
The print run has been raised to 5 million, but that won’t be enough either.
I want a copy, but apparently it’s not even distributed here outside New York.
The planned print run of the first Charlie Hebdo magazine since last week’s deadly terrorist attack has been increased to 5m as many newsagents in France sold out of stocks within minutes of it going on sale.
“The publisher has decided this morning to bring the print run to 5m,” Véronique Faujour, president of the distributor MLP, told AFP. The figure is 2m more than had been expected.
Large queues formed outside French magazine kiosks as the first edition since the attack on the magazine’s office killed 12 went on sale.
Some outlets reported that hundreds of copies of the magazine were sold in the first few minutes of going on sale by customers eager to show support for free speech following the attack.
Also, frankly, in my case and I would guess in theirs, to have the damn issue.
The Guardian’s Anne Penketh said her local newsagent in Paris was so inundated with customers wanting copies of Charlie Hebdo that he hid them and sold copies only to regulars.
She said: “While I was there, a couple of people stopped by and asked for a copy, but [the newsagent] said he didn’t have any. He then stooped down and put my copy inside Le Figaro so nobody would see. He says he’s never seen anything like it.”
5 million won’t be enough either. Keep printing.
“It was incredible. I had a queue of 60-70 people waiting for me when I opened,” said a woman working at a newspaper kiosk in Paris. “I’ve never seen anything like it. All my 450 copies were sold out in 15 minutes.”
Jamie Johnson, 21, a language student from Exeter University working in Paris, reported a queue of 400 people snaking around a block in usually quiet streets in the 5th arrondissement by 8am.
Johnson said that a woman behind him in the queue shouted: “I am buying a piece of history.”
Well exactly. A piece of history, a “oui” to freedom of expression, a “fuck you” to the murderers and their fans, a farewell to the murdered, a cheer for secularism and the right to apostasize, all that and more.
In a small shop in Gloucestershire –
Caroline Powell, 47, came in to order a copy, but was too late. “It is to honour the people that were massacred,” she said. “I will come in again on Friday. I think it is about freedom of speech. I think we should be able to buy what we want. Charlton Kings isn’t just a sleepy village.”
To honour the people who were massacred: exactly so.
Exactly. I’d like a copy to frame and keep. It is History and, if I’d followed my first career path and became a History prof, I would hang it in my office. It’s an historic image now.
Fortunately we can easily get the image to frame and keep. But I want the whole issue – to read as well as keep.
I think what’s good with this situation is that people will maybe stop discussing about the cartoons only but will read the texts too. Charlie Hebdo was always more than cartoons. As an ex-reader cartoons may have made me smile sometimes, but I was always much more interested by the writings inside.
I looked on Ebay and the prices are skyrocketing, we are not the only ones eager to get a copy. Pity for us who live in the rural US, but I’m hoping someone at one the the institutions of higher education in my town will get one for their libraries.
In the news: Belgium bookstores selling magazine sent warning letters; Muslim leaders condemn new magazine issue
Printed copies of CH are appearing on ebay at a ridiculous mark ups although you can still buy a PDF version at a modest price.