A news organization that covers national and international events, Daily News reports on a wide range of topics affecting the city of New York. The newspaper’s coverage has included political wrongdoing, such as the Teapot Dome Scandal, and social intrigue, including the romance between Wallis Simpson and King Edward VIII that led to his abdication. Daily News has also focused on the art of photography; it was an early user of the Associated Press wirephoto service in the 1930s and developed a large staff of photographers.
The Daily News was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson, a former publisher of the Chicago Tribune. He and co-publisher Robert R. McCormick had been having trouble agreeing on the editorial direction of the Tribune, so Patterson decided to launch a competing paper in New York City with a more sensational style and a more aggressive approach to journalism.
By the 1920s, the New York Daily News had established itself as a leading newspaper in the United States. Its success can be credited in part to its sensational pictorial coverage and a willingness to go one step further than its competitors to capture attention-grabbing headlines. For example, in 1928, a reporter strapped a hidden camera to his leg while Ruth Snyder was being electrocuted in the electric chair for killing her husband. The next day the newspaper ran a front-page photo of Snyder mid-electrocution, with the headline “DEAD!”
During the 1940s and 1950s, Daily News circulation reached its peak as the nation’s biggest newspaper. The paper was a major contributor to the city’s war effort, and its journalists took a strong stand against a range of social injustices, from segregation to labor rights abuses. The paper also dominated the local sports scene and was the first major newspaper to develop a nationally syndicated comic strip, introducing the world to Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters.
In 1975, the Daily News rolled out what would become its most famous headline with a story that captured a pivotal moment in American politics. After President Gerald Ford vetoed a bankruptcy bailout for New York City, the front page of the October 30th edition read: “FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD!”
By 1979, the Daily News had begun to see signs that its reputation as a hard-line Republican publication was softening. The newspaper lost 145,000 readers during a three-month strike that year, and the Times suggested the decline was due to pricing increases and production problems caused by the hiring of non-union replacements for striking workers.
The News remained a top-selling paper through the 1980s, though its circulation continued to slip. In the 1990s, it moved to a more centrist position and became known as “The Eyes, The Ears, The Honest Voice of New York.” Today, the newspaper is owned by Mortimer Zuckerman’s News Corp, and the iconic building that housed the Daily News from 1929 to 1995 (designated a New York City landmark by the Landmarks Preservation Commission) is now home to the television channel WPIX and the restaurant chain Five Guys.