The New York Daily News is a tabloid newspaper founded in 1919 and based in New York City. It is one of the largest newspapers in the United States and is the only major daily newspaper published in the City of New York. The Daily News is renowned for its editorial positions on political candidates, ballot measure issues, and other public policy matters in addition to covering local and national events and news stories.
At its peak in 1947, the Daily News reached circulation of 2.4 million copies per day and was one of the highest-circulation newspapers in the world. In recent decades, however, it has suffered from declining readership and financial difficulties resulting from the rise of online news sources. The Daily News is owned by the Tribune Publishing Company.
In 1978, the Daily News was hit hard by a multi-union strike that closed its New York city offices for almost three months. While the strike also affected the circulation of its main competitors, The New York Post and The New York Times, it was the Daily News that took the heaviest hits and saw its daily readership drop by a total of 145,000. This marked the first cracks in the News’ previously impenetrable exterior and signaled that readership was beginning to wane.
By the late 1970s, the Daily News was operating at a loss and began to lose market share. Adding to its woes, it had given in to union demands over the years and was spending more money on salaries and benefits than it was making. By the time the 1980s came around, the paper was losing $1 million a month and its parent company Tribune had offered it for sale.
However, the Daily News was saved by a group of investors led by Moritz Sudhof who bought the newspaper for an astounding amount of money ($1 a share). The newsroom took on a more conservative tone in the wake of this purchase and began to see some growth in its circulation numbers.
In 2021, an anonymous Yale alumnus made a significant gift to support the digitization and preservation of the Yale Daily News Historical Archive. This gift, along with ongoing private funding, enables the Daily News to continue to be available as an archived resource for students and historians. The Yale Daily News is the oldest college newspaper in the country and its alumni have gone on to lead careers in journalism and public life including William F. Buckley, Lan Samantha Chang, John Hersey, Joseph Lieberman, Strobe Talbott, Garry Trudeau, and others. The Yale Library’s Digital Collections team is dedicated to preserving the paper’s rich history.