As h2g2's resident expert on newspapers, Florida Sailor, could doubtlessly tell us, it is really common for newspapers that were first published in the traditional paper fashion to subsequently be available online. However h2g2's own newspaper, The Post, is perhaps unique in being conceived from the beginning as an online paper that once, for one issue only, became a paper-based newspaper; January 2002's Exclusive Paper Post.

January 2002 were exciting times for h2g2 researchers. Coinciding with the 'Rupert' Meet in London on 26 January was The Post's 100th edition. To celebrate this someone, quite possibly Pastey, had a cunning plan. Why not combine both events with a special commemorative issue of The Post handed out to those attending the 'Rupert' Meet? And so The Paper Post was born.

What was The Paper Post?

The Paper Post consisted of 24 A4 black & white pages. The front page can be seen here:

Page 3 Pastey

Pastey was featured on Page 3; Pastey's Past and Future article reminisced back to those nostalgic days when he wrote the first ever edition of The Post on a Pentium 75 running at 74mHz with a 33.3bps modem, back when h2g2 had only the one true skin: Classic Goo. Those were the days...

The Insides

I think pretty much all of the contents of The Paper Post then made it into the following edition of , including Wowbagger's h2g2 life and Spimcoot's Paper Cuts cartoons. However the best bit was the back page. Initially blank except for the word Autographs!!! in bold, underlined italics, it encouraged us to talk to every other researcher in the pub, if only to get their signature. Here is a scanned copy of my back cover:

Naturally there is a signature I didn't get that day and is missing from my copy – my own. See if you can spot my signature on Tube's The Paper Post Back Page.

I sometimes wonder how many copies of The Paper Post still exist. If you have one, please let me know!

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