The Daily News is a morning newspaper that has long been one of the largest circulation tabloids in the United States. Founded in 1919 as the Illustrated Daily News, it initially attracted readers with sensational coverage of crime and violence, lurid photographs and cartoons. It grew to become the nation’s largest newspaper by the 1930s. The Daily News was an early adopter of the tabloid format, introducing a color section in 1935 and using the front page to feature dramatic photographs. The paper also has a lengthy editorial page.
The New York Times calls the Daily News “a powerful force in the community,” and many of its staff members have gone on to prominent careers in journalism, politics and public service. The News has a reputation for exposing corruption and for advocating for social change, including the rights of women and minorities. It has been the first to cover major breaking national and international events, including world wars and a number of presidential elections, and has an extensive archives that are available online.
Today, the News is published in two editions: a weekday printed newspaper and an online digital version. It has the highest subscriber count of any local daily newspaper in the United States. Its online archive includes 18,680,445 searchable pages from 1919 to 2023. Its archiving project continues to expand.
It was the only American newspaper to cover the 1919 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, which precipitated the beginning of World War I. It is credited with revolutionizing the way newspapers are presented and written, and has been a model for other papers in its use of images. The original Daily News building, designed by John Mead Howells and Raymond Hood, is an official city landmark and was the inspiration for the Daily Planet building in the first two Superman movies. The News moved to 450 West 33rd Street (also known as Manhattan West) in 1995.
In this book, Andrew Conte explores the decline of traditional top-down journalism in America, the resulting loss of jobs and local newsrooms, and how communities like McKeesport, Pennsylvania, are struggling to separate fact from gossip and to make sense of their daily lives. He offers a lifeline to communities that have lost their local news sources and argues that the answer to the crisis is not technology but a renewed commitment to journalism that truly reflects the needs of its readers.
Daily News is an essential read for anyone concerned about the future of local journalism and the health of American democracy. It’s a smart, entertaining, and ultimately hopeful book that will inspire you to believe in the power of journalism again.