Daily news is a comprehensive source of news on local, national and international affairs. The New York City based tabloid was founded in 1919 and reached its peak of circulation in 1947, when it was the nation’s largest newspaper. Its success is largely due to its sensational pictorial coverage and a willingness to go the extra mile in pursuit of attention-grabbing headlines. This was demonstrated most notably in 1928, when it published an image of Ruth Snyder mid-electrocution—the newspaper’s version of the “front page news” that a woman had been sentenced to death for killing her husband.
In addition to its traditional focus on the city’s politics and sports, the Daily News has established a reputation as an advocate for civil rights, social justice, and free speech. It won a Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Commentary in 1996 for E.R. Shipp’s pieces on race, welfare and social issues in the New York City area, and another in 1998 for Mike McAlary’s investigation of police brutality against Haitian immigrant Abner Louima. The paper has also won numerous awards for its cartoons and editorials, including a Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 1991.
The newspaper’s popularity continued throughout the second half of the 20th century, as it competed with its more sensational rival, the New York Post—which would become one of the nation’s most popular tabloids in the wake of Donald Trump’s election victory. The Daily News’s circulation peaked in 1947 at 2.4 million copies daily—making it the largest newspaper in the United States—and it maintained local bureaus in every borough of the city, as well as its iconic art deco headquarters on the corner of 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue. It also operated a television station, WPIX (Channel 11 in the city), whose call letters were a play on its nickname as New York’s Picture Newspaper; and radio station WFAN-FM, which was later renamed CBS Radio.
By the 1980s, however, the Daily News was losing money and had been forced to yield ground in its battles with unions over rules, job numbers and overtime. By 1990, the Daily News had a 147-day strike and was operating at a loss of more than $1 million per month, a significant part of which was attributed to labor costs. Ultimately, the newspaper’s parent company, the Tribune Company, put it up for sale and controversial British media mogul Robert Maxwell purchased it.
The Daily News’s struggles continued throughout the 21st century, and in 2017 it was announced that Tronc, the parent company of USA Today, had repurchased the newspaper for just $1. Under the new ownership, the Daily News has been working to regain its footing as a serious daily newspaper and to keep pace with digital news sources. Its online edition has a readership of over 1.5 million people a day, and its print circulation is still strong, though dwindling from its heyday in the 1940s. Its mobile app allows users to read the latest issue, as well as archived editions.