The Daily News Historical Archive provides access to digitized versions of printed issues of the Yale Daily News, the nation’s oldest college daily newspaper. It contains more than 140 years of YDN reporting and includes full-text search capability. It is available to the world on this website, free of charge and without restrictions. The Archive was made possible in part by a generous gift from an anonymous Yale College alumnus.
The Yale Daily News is the oldest college daily newspaper in the United States, founded on January 28, 1878. The News is financially and editorially independent and serves the communities of Yale and New Haven, Connecticut. The News publishes Monday through Friday during the academic year. In addition to the daily newspaper, it produces several special issues each year, including the Yale-Harvard Game Day Issue, Commencement Issue and First Year Issue, as well as weekly supplements known as WKND and the Yale Daily News Magazine. The News also publishes annual commemorative editions of its coverage of the lives and accomplishments of its alumni, students of color, and members of the LGBTQ community in collaboration with Yale’s cultural centers and affiliated student groups.
In the early 20th century, the News was one of America’s most widely circulated newspapers, competing in readership with the rival tabloid New York Post. It attracted readers with sensational headlines, lurid photographs and cartoons. In the 1940s, it adopted a conservative populist tone and in the 1970s was a Democratic paper. In the early 21st century, circulation declined dramatically. In 2017, owner Mortimer Zuckerman sold the paper to Tronc, a Chicago-based media company.
Death of the Daily News is a profoundly important book, not just about the decline and ultimate death of a once-mighty local newspaper but about how we react to such loss. It is a timely, smart and deeply moving work that will appeal to both ordinary citizens and scholars. And, despite its depressing subject matter, it offers hope that local journalism can survive. A must-read for anyone interested in the future of American democracy.