Gourt Home::Gourt :: Newsday
Newsday is a daily tabloid-size newspaper which primarily serves Long Island and the New York City borough of Queens, although it is sold throughout the greater New York City metropolitan area. It is among the top ten United States newspapers in terms of total distribution and readership.
The newspaper's corporate headquarters is located in Melville, New York, on Long Island.
New York Newsday
A separate edition of the newspaper, New York Newsday, was established in 1985, folded in 1995 but was shortly afterward revived. While traditional Newsday is widely read in Queens, New York Newsday's readership is primarily in New York City's other four boroughs, including Manhattan. Between the two editions, Newsday has readership and distribution in all five boroughs.
Founding
Founded by Alicia Patterson, with backing from her husband, Harry Guggenheim, the paper was first published on September 3, 1940.
Editorial style
Despite having a tabloid format, Newsday is not known for being as sensationalistic as other daily tabloids such as the New York Daily News and the New York Post. While still regarded as lower in status than the venerable New York Times, Newsday remains a respected alternative for Long Island residents. Its prestige reached a peak in the 1960s and 1970s, when investigative reports into local land scandals won the Pulitzer prize, Bill Moyers briefly served as Publisher, its national news section dug into President Nixon's relationship with Bebe Rebezo, and it took a leading role in the The Arizona Project.**" target="_blank" >Newsday is sometimes accused of having a strongly liberal editorial bent and, as the only major newspaper on Long Island, has often used its clout to influence local politics in Nassau and Suffolk counties. James M. Klurfeld, Editor of the Editorial Page, has been accused by local politicians and candidates of threatening to use Newsday's editorial page to criticize, and withhold election endorsements from, politicians who vote or act contrary to the policy views advocated by the paper's editorial board [http://www.longislandpress.com/index.php?cp=38&show=article&a_id=267|1. On international subjects, Newsday's editorials and Viewpoints op-eds are generally consistent with the ideas of the Council on Foreign Relations, of which Mr. Klurfeld is a member. Henry Kissinger has been a frequent contributor of opinion pieces.
Robert M. Johnson, publisher during the late-1980s effort to break into New York, was famous for hiring prestigious veteran columnists and critics away from the other papers, such as Jimmy Breslin, Murray Kempton, sportswriter Mike Lupica, and music critic Tim Page. (Newsday featured both Ann Landers and Dear Abby for several years.) Previously, home-grown writers like the tough and resourceful investigative reporters Robert Greene and Tom Renner, had been the paper's backbone. Newsday's reputation was built on gritty teamwork rather than individuals stars. Since Johnson's departure, and austerity economics imposed by the paper's new owners, editorial quality has suffered under budget constraints, with fewer star columnists and only occasional echoes of its past investigative bombshells.
Visual Style: Newsday's innovative and imaginative use of graphics has sometimes attracted national attention, particularly the early work (circa 1970) of Its long-time in-house illustrators, including Gary Viskupic, Tony D'Adamo, and Ned Levine, and its award-winning design staff (Miriam Smith et al). In the late 1980s, a new Design Director, Robert Eisner, guided the transition into innovative digital design and color printing.
Newsday's series on Long Island History has been recognized as remarkably well-researched, insightful and unbiased. The quality of the series' writing and design is evidence of the extraordinary depth of talent within Newsday's in-house staff. The series, which appeared over several years starting around 1990, is archived at the Newsday website.
Newsday's Crusades and Campaigns
Newsday has taken an activist role in promoting development on Long Island, presumably because this is the only way to increase circulation and advertising revenues, when it already has monopoly control of its primary market. This has included efforts, notably in its "Long Island at the Crossroads" campaign of 1978-80, to give the island a sort of Newsday-appointed board of directors of leading citizens who would set regional goals, supervise local government, and liaison with state and Federal officials.* (William J. Casey was Newsday's first choice to serve as leader of the "Crossroads" organization, but he chose to take over the CIA instead.) In a new introduction to a 1991 edition of a book detailing the Arizona Project, it was asserted that Newsday's Bob Greene had attempted to appoint a elite clique to manage the state, and that they differed from the crooks and killers who had ignited the scandals mainly in being "higher up on the food chain".
For a few years starting in 1988, under then-publisher Robert M. Johnson, Newsday embarked on a series of aggressive campaigns, to purge "maverick" environmentalists from the "rambunctious" Suffolk Legislature**,*," target="_blank" >to promote the construction of "WillyWorld" in Yaphank*," target="_blank" >to build a "Business-Labor Coalition" (whose main players were the kind of characters Newsday had won its Pultitzers for investigating, and whose remarks about civic associations and environmental groups usually had an ominous tone)*,*," target="_blank" >to build a major jetport at Calverton, to give the development lobby control of underground water supplies, and, above all, to create an Urban Development Corporation subsidiary that critics claimed amounted to a virual coup d'etat - permanently transferring important powers from elected governments to a self-selected clique of developers and their allies.*
Johnson's active efforts to influence public policy were consistent with Newsday's tradition of vigorously promoting Long Island's economic growth. Even his hiring as a "consultant" by developer Wilbur Breslin (immediately after his forced departure from Newsday) was regarded as legitimate by editorial page editor Jim Klurfeld, in a comment quoted in the New York Times. However, Johnson's personal initiatives and influence were uniquely significant and controversial; for a decade he was a dominant figure in Long Island politics and business, as well as at Newsday. See Robert M. Johnson.
Ownership
Newsday is owned by the Tribune Company and is headquartered in Melville, New York. Its previous outside parent company was the Los Angeles Times. It is usually ranked among the top ten newspapers in circulation in the United States, although in 2004, a scandal arose implying that its circulation had been inflated. A subsequent audit revealed that tens of thousands of papers that had been marked as destroyed were credited to the overall numbers.
"Newsday" is a content partner with WPIX, which is also owned by Tribune.
Newsday in popular culture
On the 1996-2005 CBS sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, the fictional character Ray Barone (played by Ray Romano) is employed by New York Newsday as a sportswriter. Newsday was also the newspaper at which the lead female character in the Crocodile Dundee movies worked.
External links
New York City newspapers | Guggenheim family | Newspapers of New York | Tribune Company subsidiaries | Pulitzer Prize winning newspapers | Long Island
Newsday
Melbourne Australia metropolitan afternoon daily newspaper launched by David Syme & Co in 1969 to compete with the Herald. Despite initial optimism, Newsday closed a year later.
"Newsday"