Newspaper to publish a million copies

The French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo plans to respond to the extremist attack that decimated its staff by upping its usual print run of 60,000 to one million copies next week.

But next week’s edition will be only half the size of the previous edition.

“It will be a reduced eight-page edition,” said Richard Malka, the newspaper’s lawyer. “Although cartoonists from all over the world have offered their work, we took the view that it would be important to produce it all ourselves, using the crew remaining.”

Wednesday’s attack on an editorial meeting by masked gunmen wielding automatic rifles killed 12 people, including five cartoonists, Charlie Hebdo’s chief editor and two policemen.

France declared Thursday a national day of mourning.

The newspaper Libération an- nounced Thursday that Charlie Hebdo will begin operating out of its offices. “We are providing them with everything they will need to produce their newspaper,” a news release said. Libération helped Charlie Hebdo continue publication in 2011 when it was firebombed after publishing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

The newspaper Le Monde has promised cash to help meet Charlie Hebdo’s estimated € 500,000 production cost.

At the time of this week’s attack, Charlie Hebdo had sold only half of its press run of 60,000 at a cost of about $4.20 a copy.

Prices have since soared. More than 2,400 copies were listed on sale on ebay.ca on Thursday, with one copy of Wednesday’s issue listed for $4,202.

The often cash-strapped paper has amused and angered readers since 1970 with cartoons lampooning all religions and public figures. With files from James Overton