The Daily News is a tabloid newspaper that has been published in New York City since 1878. It was the first successful tabloid newspaper in the United States, and attracted readers with sensational stories of crime and scandal, lurid photographs, and cartoons. The paper is often regarded as one of the originators of modern journalism, and has been called “the most influential newspaper in America.”
The daily edition was founded by Malcolm D. Mix, his brother Samuel Mix, and W.H. Brandish. It was the first newspaper to be sold by subscription, which allowed it to attract the wealthy patrons needed to pay for printing and other costs. The newspaper’s first edition was four pages long and cost a penny.
Circulation declined sharply in the years following World War II, and the newspaper was forced to reduce its staff and to cut its coverage of the city’s affairs. By the early 1980s, it had lost its position as one of the nation’s top newspapers to the more sophisticated rival the New York Times.
However, the newspaper regained its place among the nation’s largest papers by focusing on local and regional news, sports, entertainment, and classified advertising. It also established a reputation for investigative reporting and bold editorials that were critical of government, business, and other institutions.
In addition to its flagship daily newspaper, the Daily News publishes numerous niche publications and several annual special sections. Its website features articles on a variety of topics including local news, business, education, sports and entertainment. The Daily News is currently owned by SMG-Batavia and serves Genesee, Wyoming and Orleans counties in upstate New York.
Its renowned sports section, the Daily News Sports Weekly, has won multiple awards for writing and photography. The daily version of the newspaper was once named the best newspaper in the country by sportswriters, and its columnists have won numerous awards for commentary and analysis. The newspaper’s political and economic commentary is widely credited with helping to bring down the corrupt administration of President Richard Nixon in 1970.
In the summer of 2018, the Daily News launched a major series of stories called “Rising from Rust” that focused on the region’s declining manufacturing economy and its transition to a service-based economy. The series included partnerships with Spherion, Visiting Nurses Association, DRM Productions, and the OhioHealth Mansfield Hospital, and won the “Best Solutions Journalism Project” award at the 2019 LION Publishers awards. The resulting YDN digital archive is open to the public. An anonymous donation in 2021 facilitated the move to a more user-friendly platform, facilitated the addition of issues from 1996 to present, and will help ensure its ongoing maintenance and preservation. The content in this aggregation is drawn from the Daily News Historical Archive, which includes full-text versions of all printed issues of the Yale Daily News from its founding in 1878 to 2021. This work is the product of a collaboration between the YDN and the Library of Congress, and it is available in full text via the Archive’s web interface. For more on the methodology behind this high-frequency measure of economic sentiment, see Buckman, Shapiro, Sudhof and Wilson (2020).