ROME -- Tens of thousands of mourners were gathered in St. Peter's Square. The world's major news organizations had been poised for more than 24 hours to break the news; some even did so prematurely Friday.

Yet somehow, at 9:37 p.m. Saturday, when the official news of the pope's death swept through the Vatican's press office, it was met with near disbelief.

"Is it true?" shouted one wire service reporter at a clerk from the office of Dr. Joaquin Navaro-Valls, the Vatican's official spokesman. A demure nod set the journalists into a frenzy, scrambling for their cell phones and computers.

The incredulity seemed justified among the scores of reporters and producers tracking the story, a number of whom had been stationed in Rome for years in anticipation of this moment. Reports that the pope had received his last rites (known as the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick) late Thursday and the stark terms contained in the notoriously guarded Vatican health reports distinguished this health scare from the pope's previous hospitalizations. It was clear by Saturday morning that these were the pope's final hours.

And while the wall-to-wall coverage from the thousands of journalists, producers and technicians from around the world who flocked to Vatican City -- including some of the biggest names in the field -- during the next 48 hours might not have surprised, it was indeed symbolic. Not only did this pope during his 27-year pontificate see the fall of communism, but he also witnessed the rise of the mass media, which he largely embraced. There was no CNN or World Wide Web in 1978, the last time the Catholic Church underwent a historic papal transition.

Indeed, it was on Pope John Paul II's watch that the Vatican emerged as a media conglomerate in earnest, now boasting several internal news agencies, two daily papers and a worldwide radio network.

Along with his indefatigable travels to 129 foreign countries, it was mostly the charismatic, Polish-born Pope John Paul II, a former actor and unabashed showman, who would churn the interests of the world's media.

"Karol Wojtyla would not have become Pope Wojtyla without the media. Something he was very much aware of," said an editorial in Italy's Il Messagero newspaper. "No one was as aware as he was of the importance of the media in our present time. Similarly no one, to the extent that he was, knew how to exploit with such amiable ruthlessness its immense potential."

Most telling of the importance of this pope was the commitment by the major U.S networks, which made it clear that this was a story that would not be scrimped on. Incalculable sums had been expended with most of the major networks renting apartments -- some for as long as five years -- to get the best shots of both St. Peter's Basilica and appropriate angles for the upcoming conclave at which the next pope will be elected. Teams of journalists had been called to Rome abruptly over the last few months during the pope's numerous hospitalizations. While costly, those mobilizations would serve as test runs for this weekend, which was nothing short of harried.

The mix of competition and worldwide scrutiny was not without its errors. On Friday, conflicting reports from the Italian news media regarding the pope's decline culminated in some outlets, including Fox News Channel, to prematurely report the pope's death around 1:23 p.m. ET. Fox News quickly reversed itself and apologized on-air to viewers.

"You really get a sense of history here," CNN's Anderson Cooper said in an interview Sunday afternoon from Rome. "It's an intensely public story, but it's also an intensely private story, too."

Network and cable news rushed in a second wave of correspondents and crews over the weekend, preparing for what likely will be at least two weeks of coverage of the conclave and John Paul II's funeral.

MSNBC, which said it was first on the air with the confirmation of the pope's death at 2:53 p.m. ET, had Lester Holt anchoring in New York and Chris Matthews reporting from Rome.

In addition to Cooper, CNN also had Aaron Brown, Bill Hemmer and Christiane Amanpour on the ground in Rome and at the Vatican.

NBC's Brian Williams was the only one of the Big Three anchors ready to go on air Saturday when the official word came down. CBS had Thalia Assuras in New York and John Roberts in Rome; interim CBS anchor Bob Schieffer was getting ready for Sunday's "Face the Nation," which he also hosts. ABC's Peter Jennings, who the network said has been ill this week, anchored "World News Tonight" but left Bob Woodruff to anchor its coverage Saturday afternoon.

Fox News' extensive coverage was anchored by Shepard Smith from Rome.

With NCAA men's basketball Final Four coverage Saturday, CBS News didn't have as much coverage as the other two networks. CBS News was on the air for about 30 minutes when the news broke in the U.S., then back on the air at 4 p.m. ET for President Bush's statement and then periodically throughout the evening. Williams anchored for NBC from 2:57 p.m. to 4:20 p.m., continuously; ABC was on the air from 2:58 p.m. until 5 p.m.

To pay its respects, the two pillars of Italian culture -- soccer and politics -- were halted during the weekend. Campaigning for this week's regional elections ceased while all of Italy's series A-1 soccer games were canceled. The weekend lineup of shows on Italy's state-run RAI networks and its private rival Mediaset (owned by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berslusconi) were completely dedicated to papal coverage.

The pope's body will be moved today to the Sala Bologna at St. Peter's Basilica, where the pontiff will lie in state until his funeral, which will be held in the next four to six days.

Paul J. Gough in New York contributed to this report.