The Daily News
The New York Daily News is a tabloid newspaper published in the United States. Founded in 1919 as the Illustrated Daily News, it became the first successful American daily printed in tabloid format and once had the highest circulation of any newspaper in the country. It attracted readers with sensational crime and scandal coverage, lurid photographs, classified ads, cartoons, a sports section, and celebrity gossip.
The paper was owned by the Tribune Company until it was purchased in 1993 by Mortimer Zuckerman, who also owned the New York Times and other newspapers. The Daily News was not profitable under the previous owner, and the new owners sought to cut costs by eliminating some sections, reorganizing others, and outsourcing production. The News won (with ProPublica) a Pulitzer Prize in 1995 for exposing police corruption.
Hedge fund Alden Global Capital has enacted buyouts, cuts, and outsourced the News’ printing plant since taking over the newspaper last year. Many of the News’ employees are worried about their future, and some have started campaigns seeking local benefactors to help “save” their employer.
Known for its hyper-local coverage of the city’s politics, crime, and celebrities, the Daily News has also been one of the country’s leading news sources on national political stories. In the 1980s, it was a pioneer in covering AIDS, and won a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 1986 for uncovering New York police Department abuse of eviction rules. It also won a Pulitzer for Breaking News in 1992 for the coverage of the World Trade Center bombing and for its exclusive story about the attempted assassination of President Reagan in 1981.
The Daily News moved to its current location on 450 West 33rd Street in 1995, although the original newsroom building at 220 East 42nd Street, an official city and national landmark designed by John Mead Howells and Raymond Hood, still stands as a reminder of the once-mighty paper. The building was the inspiration for the Daily Planet in the first two Superman movies. It was also used as the headquarters for the television station WPIX, which remains in the building.
The Yale Daily News Historical Archive provides access to digitized copies of prints of the daily newspaper from January 28, 1878 through December 31, 1906. The archive is free and open to the public, and is available on a multi-platform web interface that includes full-text searching and browsing of the entire scanned collection. The archive is a part of the Yale Library Digital Projects. The Yale Daily News Historical Archive is made possible by the support of the Yale University Library and the Friends of the Yale Library.