Daily News is a morning newspaper that features extensive local and national news coverage, New York City exclusives, politics and the latest gossip and entertainment. The paper is also known for its award-winning writers, columnists and opinion formers.
Founded in 1919, the Daily News is the first successful American daily printed in tabloid format. It was launched by Joseph Medill Patterson, publisher of the Chicago Tribune, and it quickly established itself as a rival to its rival in the Windy City, the Chicago Sun-Times. The Daily News attracted readers with sensational stories of crime and scandal, lurid photographs, cartoons, and other entertaining features. By the 1930s, the paper had become the nation’s largest newspaper.
The newspaper reached its apex in readership and profitability during the 1940s, with a circulation of about 2.5 million. At the time, it was widely praised for its World War II reporting, and its brassy pictorial style was dubbed “New York’s Picture Newspaper.” The newspaper established its own wirephoto service in 1948, which it referred to as “Daily News Pictures” or simply, “The Daily News Photographs”. The paper also established its own television station, WPIX-TV, whose call letters were derived from its nickname and the name of its hometown. It also owned the radio station WFAN-AM, which is now known as CBS Radio.
In the 1980s, the News began to decline. It lost money in the first half of that decade and had to lay off more than 1,000 employees in 1990 due to a five-month labor strike by its workers. Attempts to save the newspaper failed, including a proposed sale of the paper to Conrad Black, who owned the London-based Hollinger Inc. newspaper empire, which included the Sun-Times and Britain’s Daily Telegraph. Black’s bid was ultimately unsuccessful, and the Daily News was purchased by Mort Zuckerman in 1993 for less than a third of what it had been worth at its peak.
In recent years, the newspaper has shifted from a staunchly conservative editorial position to one that is more moderate to liberal. The change was most pronounced during the presidency of Bill de Blasio, who has called for an end to the death penalty and supports gay marriage. The editorial board has endorsed candidates for public office, and the newspaper’s editorials are often a counterpoint to those of the New York Post, which is more strongly aligned with Republican policies. The News is a subsidiary of tronc, which acquired the publishing operations of the Tribune Company in 2017. It is headquartered at 4 New York Plaza in Lower Manhattan. The paper is a daily newspaper and is published in both print and online editions. The website’s mobile version is one of the most popular in the United States, with a monthly average of more than 11 million unique visitors. A free app is available for iOS and Android devices. It was ranked #17 in the Google Play Store’s Top News & Media Apps category in November of 2017. In March of 2018, the newspaper rolled out an updated Daily News app that features new and enhanced content.
