The timing of Barack Obama’s “text message” announcement of his running mate had copy desks scrambling Friday night and early Saturday. A news alert from the Los Angeles Times site arrived in my inbox at 1:12 a.m. EDT. The Obama message itself was sent at 3 a.m., according to this CNN story.
Many papers on the East Coast didn’t have the story, but things got better as they went west. And in one case, mechanical problems helped a newspaper get the story. A former student who now works at a paper in North Dakota reports this on Facebook:
Our press blew apart and ran a few hours late, so we were able to get the VP stuff in. Lucky and unlucky at the same time.
Indeed. Sometimes this is just the sort of break you need.
The Editor's Desk 
The three remaining employees of the Orlando Sentinel must have stayed up late. In a little box next to the headline,Flood of Misery, was late breaking new Obama picks Biden. On the last page of the front section was the AP story.