The Daily News (colloquially called the New York Daily News) is a New York City newspaper and one of the largest in the United States with a circulation of 795,000[As of March 31, 2006. http://www.infoplease.com/ipea/A0004420.html Retrieved July 17, 2006.]. The paper, the first U.S. daily printed in tabloid form, first rolled off the printing presses in 1919. It is owned and run by Mortimer Zuckerman.
History
The News carried the well-known slogan "New York's Picture Newspaper" from 1920 to 1991, for its emphasis on photographs, and a camera has been part of the newspaper's logo from day one. (
The News's current slogan, developed from a 1985 ad campaign, is "New York's Hometown Newspaper" while another slogan was "The Eyes, the Ears, the Honest Voice of New York"). The
Daily News continues to include large and prominent
photographs, for news, entertainment and sports, as well as intense city news coverage,
celebrity gossip,
classified ads,
comics, a
sports section, and an opinion section. (
Bill Gallo is a prominent sports
cartoonist for the paper.)
The newspaper, which has won 10 Pulitzer Prizes, was founded by Joseph Medill Patterson, a member of the family that published the Chicago Tribune, and from its founding until 1991 was owned by the Tribune. The News later established WPIX (Channel 11 in New York City) and WPIX-FM.
At one point in the early 1990s, the Daily News almost went out of business. However, millionaire Robert Maxwell offered financial assistance to The News to help it stay in business. When Maxwell died shortly thereafter, The News seceded from his publishing empire, which eventually splintered under allegations about whether he had the financial backing to sustain it.
Headquarters
From the 1930s to 1990s,
The News was based in a landmark skyscraper at 220 East 42nd Street near Second Avenue, designed by
Raymond Hood. The paper moved to 33rd Street in the mid-1990s, but the 42nd Street location is still known as The News Building and still features a giant globe and weather instruments in its lobby. (It was the model for the
Daily Planet building of the first four
Superman movies). WPIX-TV remains in the building, although it now partners with
Newsday as both are owned by Tribune.
Editorial opinion
The
Daily News is generally seen as politically midway between the two other major New York City dailies, the more
liberal New York Times, and the more
conservative New York Post, though tending more in the direction of liberalism. Typically, its editorial page espouses a liberal position on social issues like abortion, while advocating more conservative positions on crime and foreign policy. This was not always the case, as the
Daily News, during its partnership with the
Chicago Tribune, usually shared the
Tribune's staunch conservative viewpoint, while the
Post was considered a liberal newspaper. The two papers had reversed their ideologies by the early 1970s.
Style and reputation
Though its competition with the
Post has led the
Daily News to engage in some of the more sensationalist tactics of its competitor, it is still respected in the industry for the quality of its contributors (which past and present have included
Jimmy Breslin,
Pete Hamill, William Reel,
David Hinckley,
Mike Lupica,
Juan Gonzalez,
John Melia and
Jami Bernard), its solid coverage of the city, and of course its photos. Its Voice of the People letters section (which often allows letter writers, called Voicers, to respond to other letter writers) is seen as a good way to read the pulse of the city.
Notable front pages
The News' is known for its often colorful and blunt front page headlines, several of which have achieved iconic status. Famous headlines from the
Daily News include:
- DEAD! (Picture of the execution of Ruth Snyder, 1928)
- WHO'S A BUM! (describing the Brooklyn Dodgers' championship of 1955)
- FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD (bankruptcy of New York City government and the refusal of President Gerald Ford to give financial assistance to the city prompted this headline in 1975; the paper nonetheless endorsed him for President the next year)
- CRYBABY (referring to then - Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich in the mid 1990s, for his shutting down the US government during budget talks)
- BOULEVARD OF DEATH; Referring to Queens Boulevard in Queens, where 72 people were killed in traffic accidents between 1993 and 2000.
- TOP COP ADMITS HANKY PANKY (about the marital travails of then-Police Commissioner Ben Ward in 1984)
- IT'S WAR (Picture of the second plane going into the World Trade Center)
- AIR HEADS (referring to the pilots of a plane that ventured into restricted airspace over Washington, D.C. in May 2005)
See also
References
External link
New York City newspapers
New York Daily News | ニューヨークデイリーニュース