The Daily News is one of the nation’s oldest and most influential newspapers. Its journalists have been instrumental in shaping public opinion for over a century, and its readers have helped to form the American conscience. The paper traces its roots back to the Illustrated Daily News, founded in Los Angeles in 1878 and later moved to New York City. Today, the newspaper consists of several sections and serves the communities of Yale, New Haven, and New York City. The newspaper’s staff includes many well-known writers and columnists, including William F. Buckley, Lan Samantha Chang, John Hersey, Joseph Lieberman, Sargent Shriver, Paul Steiger, Garry Trudeau, and Calvin Trillin.
The News has won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service three times, most recently in 1992 for exposing the police department’s abuse of eviction rules. It has also won dozens of awards for journalism, and its staff have made numerous contributions to the fields of science, education, and literature. The News is published every day except Sunday, with a daily supplement called Weekend. Its world headquarters is located in Manhattan on the site of the former Pennsylvania Station, and it maintains offices in New York City’s Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens as well as within City Hall and at various state and federal courthouses throughout the city.
In addition to its intense city news coverage and celebrity gossip, the Daily News also offers political news and analysis, a sports section, classified ads, comics, and an extensive editorial section. It was once one of the nation’s top-selling papers, though its circulation has dropped significantly in recent years.
As a result of technological disruptions to the American journalism industry, hundreds of newspapers have closed in the past decade, leaving many communities with little traditional local news. Those communities often become “news deserts,” where residents struggle to make sense of what’s happening in their own communities and separate fact from gossip gleaned through social media.
Andrew Conte’s Death of the Daily News is a brilliant book about the future of local news, one that combines a deep understanding of the economic and technological forces at work with an almost poetic prose style. The book would be a depressing read in anyone’s hands, but the author’s skill and empathy makes it a profoundly moving study of the tragic loss of local journalism while ultimately providing hope that it can rise again. This is a must-read for both ordinary citizens and historians of the press.