Belgian papers hedge their bets on election result
BRUSSELS (AP) — Faced with U.S. election results coming well after printing deadlines, Belgian newspapers hedged their bets and found novel ways to get the winner on their front pages.
Het Laatste Nieuws produced two front pages Wednesday, one folded inside the other, asking readers to "pick your cover." One was headlined "It's Obama" while the other read "It's Romney." Both had profiles of the winner and analysis.
By the time newspaper stands opened, readers knew the outcome and could remove the wrong one.
De Morgen had a layered front page, with the a half-size sheet saying "Mitt Romney President," overlying a full page that said "Barack Obama President." On the Romney page it said "Please turn quickly if Obama is the winner."
"We actually did not know who was going to win. The polls were so close," De Morgen's editor in chief Wouter Verschelden told The Associated Press.
"We took a little bit of a gamble that Obama was going to win but we did want to have something of Romney in there," he said.
The DH paper was not to be outdone by anyone, though. Its front page was entirely filled by a picture of the president standing at the dais, his face covered by a big QR code.
With a smartphone, people could scan the code to access the website of the paper for a picture of the new president and the accompanying articles.
Meanwhile, Le Soir's front page screamed "Obama," followed on the left by "Has Lost — read page 2" and on the right "Has Won — read page 3."
