Several readers have called to complain about the lack of a photograph of Barack Obama on our front page Wednesday. We reserved a small space at the top right corner of the front page to put in a brief about who the next president would be. Our press deadline was 11:30 p.m.

 By the time we went to press, Obama had not even made his acceptance speech. After the paper went to bed, our news staff watched the speech together — excited, exhausted and in awe.

 The Covington News prides itself on being a hyper-local paper, which means our staff provides the news of Newton County that you cannot read in any other publication.

 Yes, every paper in the country might have had a photo of the new president-elect, but how many had a picture of Newton County’s new sheriff and commission chairman?

 Today we have a more in-depth story about how Newton County voted, including a Democratic majority vote for President-Elect Obama.

 This election is historic and we are extremely proud of Barack Obama for becoming the first black president — but we simply needed more time to develop this very important news story.

 In today’s paper you will see the results of the extra time we took to bring you the most important news in a way that is relevant to residents of this area.