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Gerry Lauzon/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

This week’s ‘Charlie Hebdo’ sold out in minutes in Paris

The issue's cover depicts the prophet Muhammad holding a sign reading "Je Suis Charlie."

 

Marisa Kabas

Tech

Posted on Jan 14, 2015   Updated on May 29, 2021, 6:44 pm CDT

The first issue of the French magazine Charlie Hebdo since last week’s massacre at the publication’s Paris headquarters hit newsstands early Wednesday morning and almost immediately disappeared.

The cover for this latest issue depicts the prophet Muhammad holding a sign reading “Je Suis Charlie,” the rallying cry that people around the world adopted to support the paper’s surviving staff.

Photos shared on Twitter showed people lining up in the early morning hours to snag one of the 3 million copies produced in the wake of the tragedy.

https://twitter.com/RosieGray/status/555248458635157505

Some kiosks were limiting sales due to the high demand.

Early reports indicated the iconic issue sold out at many newsstands by 7am local time.

https://twitter.com/JM_Beck/status/555248198550577152

Unfortunately, some of the purchases were for less than noble ends.

https://twitter.com/RosieGray/status/555307343215611904

French journalist Jérémy Maccaud reported people were sprinting from kiosk to kiosk in the hopes of finding a stray copy.

The proprietor of one Paris newsstand posted a sign to let people know that they were sold out of the 30 copies they had received.

This was clearly not the way Charlie Hebdo‘s founders wanted to become an international sensation, but the attention directed at their latest issue is certainly one way to honor the 12 men who died in last week’s terrorist attack.

Photo via Gerry Lauzon/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

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*First Published: Jan 14, 2015, 8:43 am CST