An internal Washington Post memo, obtained by FishbowlDC:

Colleagues, today's outstanding newspaper and the extraordinary coverage we produced over the last 24 hours on our website cap many months of superb work by just about everyone at The Washington Post, both in print and online.

As Dan Balz wrote yesterday in the last of his campaign Takes, the road to the White House began almost two years ago, becoming the longest, costliest and perhaps most closely watched presidential race in history. It ended last night in what all of us will recall as an indelible moment in the life of our newsrooms, as the immense swirl of history was stilled in words and images.

Over these many months, the campaigns traversed geography, issues and plenty of news. This marathon involved sacrifices from many of our colleagues, and required the creativity and engagement of many more in our print and online newsrooms. Reporters, editors, photographers, graphic artists, producers and many others worked long hours, spent days and even weeks on the road away from their families. We made important breakthroughs in adapting the finest qualities of our print journalism to digital forms, and were rewarded with record audiences coming to washingtonpost.com . The innovation, ambition and dedication that went into our coverage are tributes to the enduring vitality of journalism.

Today begins a new story. How we cover it will influence the future of the country, and the future of our common enterprise here. We're eager to get to it. Congratulations and thank you for the job well done.

Marcus , Phil and Jim