The Daily News is a newspaper founded in 1919 in New York City by Joseph Medill Patterson and currently headquartered in Manhattan West. It is the largest newspaper in the United States, and the first U.S. daily newspaper printed in tabloid format. Its circulation peaked in 1947 at 2.4 million daily copies.
The paper has a long history of controversial and provocative stories, especially concerning race and social issues in the city of New York. It also has a reputation for breaking investigative news stories. The News has been the subject of several lawsuits for libel and invasion of privacy and has won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of police brutality toward Haitian immigrant Abner Louima in 1998.
In the mid-20th century, the Daily News competed against the even more sensational rival tabloid New York Post. The Daily News fought to maintain its lead by attracting readers with large photographs, intense city news coverage, celebrity gossip, classified ads, and comics. The paper was especially popular with commuters on the subway, where its smaller, more compact tabloid size made it easier to read while riding.
At its peak, the Daily News was known for its brassy, pictorial style and its large staff of photographers, many of whom became famous in their own right. It was one of the first newspapers to employ a wire photo service and to hire columnists such as Ed Sullivan, who would later become the host of The Ed Sullivan Show on CBS. The newspaper also was an early user of the Associated Press wirephoto service, and its photos dominated its coverage of the Second World War.
By the 1980s, the newspaper was suffering from declining circulation and financial problems. Its parent company, the Tribune Company, had incurred large costs from paying union wages and benefits, and the Daily News was operating at a loss of $1 million per month in the late 1970s. Closing the paper was considered, but it was deemed too expensive to pay severance and pension benefits for the newspaper’s employees.
By 1993, the News was on the verge of extinction, but it was saved by businessman Mortimer Zuckerman, who bought the newspaper and turned it around into a serious tabloid. Zuckerman invested $60 million in color presses to match the visual quality of USA Today, and the News soon returned to profitability.