History
The Daily News was founded by Joseph Medill Patterson in 1919. It was not connected to an earlier New York Daily News, which had been founded in the 1850s, flourished under the stewardship of Benjamin Wood, and faltered after his death in 1900, going through three owners (including his widow) before suspending publication in mid-December 1906. Patterson and his cousin, Robert R. McCormick were co-publishers of the Chicago Tribune and grandsons of Tribune founder Joseph Medill.
When Patterson and McCormick could not agree on the editorial content of the Chicago paper, the two cousins decided at a meeting in Paris that Patterson set on the project of launching a Tribune-owned newspaper in New York. On his way back, Patterson met with Alfred Harmsworth, who was the Viscount Northcliffe and publisher of the Daily Mirror, London's tabloid newspaper. Impressed with the advantages of a tabloid, Patterson launched the Daily News on June 26, 1919.
The Daily News was not an immediate success, and by August 1919, the paper's circulation had dropped to 26,625. Still, New York's many subway commuters found the tabloid format easier to handle, and readership steadily grew. By the time of the paper's first anniversary in June 1920, circulation was over 100,000 and by 1925, over a million.
The News carried the slogan "New York's Picture Newspaper" from 1920 to 1991, for its emphasis on photographs, and a camera has been part of the newspaper's logo from day one. The paper's later slogan, developed from a 1985 ad campaign, is "New York's Hometown Newspaper", while another has been "The Eyes, the Ears, the Honest Voice of New York". The Daily News continues to include large and prominent photographs, for news, entertainment and sports, as well as intense city news coverage, celebrity gossip, classified ads, comics, a sports section, and an opinion section.
News-gathering operations were, for a time, organized via two-way radio, operating on 173.3250 MHz (radio station KEA 871) allowing the assignment desk to communicate with its personnel who utilized a fleet of "radio cars".
Prominent sports cartoonists have included Bill Gallo, Bruce Stark and Ed Murawinski. Columnists have included Walter Kaner. Editorial cartoonists have included C. D. Batchelor.
In 1982, and again in the early 1990s during a newspaper strike, the Daily News almost went out of business. In the 1982 instance, the parent Tribune offered the tabloid up for sale. In 1991, millionaire Robert Maxwell offered financial assistance to The News to help it stay in business. When Maxwell died shortly thereafter, The News seceded from his publishing empire, which eventually splintered under questions about whether Maxwell had the financial backing to sustain it. After Maxwell's death in 1991, the paper was held together in bankruptcy by existing management, led by editor James Willse, who became interim publisher. Mort Zuckerman bought the paper in 1993.
From its founding until 1991, the Daily News was owned by the Tribune Company. The News established WPIX (Channel 11 in New York City), whose call letters were based on The News' nickname of New York's Picture Newspaper; and later bought what became WPIX-FM, which is now known as WFAN-FM. The television station became a Tribune property outright in 1991 and remains in the former Daily News Building; the radio station was purchased by Emmis Communications.
The News also maintains local bureaus in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, at City Hall, within One Police Plaza, and at the various state and federal courthouses in the city.
In January 2012, former News of the World and New York Post editor Colin Myler was appointed editor-in-chief of the Daily News.
Read more about this topic: Daily News (New York)
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