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Founded in 1919, the New York Daily News was the first newspaper printed in tabloid format in the United States. It is currently owned by Tronc, the publishing operations of the Tribune Company, and has its headquarters at 4 New York Plaza in Lower Manhattan. The News has a reputation for liberal-to-moderate bias and is often contrasted with its conservative rival, the New York Post.
In its early years, the Daily News found abundant subject matter, including political wrongdoing such as the Teapot Dome scandal and social intrigue such as the romance between Wallis Simpson and King Edward VIII, which led to his abdication. It also emphasized photography and was an early user of the Associated Press wirephoto service. The News also published a Sunday edition, which was the most popular of its publications.
By the end of the 1930s, the Daily News had a circulation of 2.4 million. In 1948 the News founded WPIX television, whose call letters were based on the paper’s nickname, and the following year it bought what became an FM radio station. The News also maintained local offices in Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx and was one of the first to make its classified ads available online.
In 1995, the News was losing money and its circulation was declining. The paper’s publisher, Mortimer Zuckerman, was able to buy the newspaper from the Tribune Company and turn it around. He hired editor-in-chief John Drasner and began to focus on reducing costs and increasing revenue. The Daily News became profitable the following year.
The News began to use color in the weekday editions in September 1997 and stopped printing it in the Sunday editions in March 1998. In 1998, the newspaper moved its production to a new facility that was designed to print four-color pages. In June 1996 the New York Newspaper Guild, the only union that Zuckerman failed to settle with when he acquired the Daily News, rejected the paper’s latest contract proposal.
The News is known for its investigative journalism and for its aggressive pursuit of First Amendment rights. It has won numerous awards for its work, including the New York Society of Professional Journalists’ John Peter Zenger Freedom of the Press Award. The paper has also sued to force the release of information about the city’s Board of Education and to strengthen public access to family court records. Under the leadership of Zuckerman and Debby Krenek, the newspaper developed a reputation for its legal advocacy. This includes lawsuits that resulted in the unsealing of documents relating to eight pending death penalty cases. In addition, the Daily News has filed numerous lawsuits challenging government restrictions on the free speech of its employees.
