The Daily News
The Daily News, founded in 1919, is a New York City tabloid newspaper. It is known for sensational headlines, extensive local news coverage, celebrity gossip, comics and a sports section. Its editorial content often reflects a liberal perspective. It was the first successful tabloid newspaper in the United States.
In a circulation battle with rival tabloids, the News once attracted readers with its lurid photos and front-page screamers such as “Ford to City: Drop Dead.” While its circulation is greatly diminished from its mid-20th century peak, the paper continues to be one of the nation’s largest daily newspapers. It is owned by the New York News Corporation, with businessman Mortimer B. Zuckerman as chairman and co-publisher.
Circulation data through 2014 comes from Editor & Publisher, the trade publication of the newspaper industry’s trade association, then known as the Newspaper Association of America (NAA). Since the NMA no longer provides this information, the Center used a similar technique to create its revenue estimates: applying the percentage change in total daily U.S. newspaper circulation from the previous year to total revenue reported by publicly traded newspaper companies in their financial statements.
In the early part of the 20th century, the Daily News was one of the most widely read publications in the country, reaching its highest circulation in 1947 with 2.4 million copies sold a day. By the end of the decade, however, its readership had dropped sharply and the News began a steep decline that accelerated with the rise of television news and the spread of the internet.
Today, the Daily News continues to cover the world’s greatest city, providing in-depth local news and sports coverage as well as national and international headlines. Its award-winning writers and columnists deliver New York exclusives, politics and the latest in entertainment. And no one covers the Yankees, Mets and Giants like the Daily News.
The Yale Daily News Historical Archive includes digitized versions of printed issues dating back to January 28, 1878. The archive is open to the public and includes more than 140 years of YDN reporting.
What happens when local news dies? Versions of this sad story are playing out in communities all over the country as ‘news deserts’ proliferate at an alarming rate. In Death of the Daily News, Andrew Conte offers a searching and deeply reported study that is both persuasive and hopeful. He shows how a dedicated community can save its paper, and offers a glimpse of what might be in store for all of us if we don’t take steps to preserve it. This is a book that should be read by ordinary citizens as well as journalists. It is a powerful, wise and worthwhile study. This fact sheet was compiled by the Research team at Pew Research Center. It is part of an ongoing project to examine the state of news, information and journalism in the digital age. The project is funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts.