Day Delay

You go on holiday to a small town in the West of France. Eager to know what's going on back home, because CNN and Euro News are useless, you head to the newspaper shop, where they sell American papers. You grab the New York Times and see the date. It's yesterday's.

Welcome to the Day Delay, a reflection of the reality of global travel. A paper may be published in New York City, but it's still got to physically get from NYC across the Atlantic to the nearest airport, then from that airport to the town in question. This is going to take at least a dozen hours. Bear in mind the time difference too. If the paper is picked up for shipping at 4am Tuesday NYC time, it's going to be 10pm Tuesday in France before it gets to the shop. No point opening up that late for a paper not many people will buy.

If you're at a major transit point, this is less likely; some airlines give the day's paper free on your way to the country.


 * International Herald Tribune- published in several European cities on the same day.
 * Some British papers are printed in Europe for expats and available same-day.
 * USA TODAY sends their pages via satellite to their contract printers through the world so the international edition of the paper is day and date.