The New York Daily News is an American tabloid newspaper founded in 1919 and once the largest daily in the world. It attracted readers with sensational coverage of crime and scandal, lurid photographs, and cartoons and entertainment features. In recent years, the News has shifted its editorial stance to lean more toward moderate-to-liberal bias in contrast to the right-wing New York Post. The paper is owned by tronc, which was formed through the merger of Tribune Publishing Company and Argyle Capital Partners.
In the late nineteenth century, a southwestern Pennsylvania city called McKeesport began to publish its own daily newspaper. The thriving publication served as a lifeline for its community, separating fact from gossip and illuminating the events that unfolded in town. As technology continues to disrupt the news industry, however, many small towns like McKeesport are losing their local newspapers, leaving people in these communities with fewer traditional sources of information. This trend is occurring throughout the United States, creating “news deserts” in which residents are left without access to trustworthy local journalism.
Death of the Daily News tells the story of this newspaper’s rise and fall, and tries to understand its impact on one community. It examines how a paper’s decline plays out in a variety of ways, from economic forces to politics to social media and argues that the solution to the problems facing local journalism lies in the hands of citizens themselves.
An innovative and compelling account of a local paper’s decline, Death of the Daily News is a powerful reminder of how important it is to have a vibrant democracy with access to trusted journalism. A must-read for anyone who cares about the future of journalism and our country.
The Yale Daily News Historical Archive is a rich collection of more than 130 years of the world’s most famous college newspaper. The Archive consists of issues from 1996 to 2021 and is accessible free of charge.
The archive is made possible by a generous gift from an anonymous Yale College alumnus. The donation has facilitated the migration of the archive to a new platform, allowing the addition of issues through 2021, and will help ensure its ongoing maintenance and preservation. The Yale Daily News Historical Archive is maintained by the Yale University Library.
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Yale University has a long and proud tradition of supporting independent student newspapers. The Yale Daily News is the oldest of these student publications, and for more than a century has been the primary source of news and debate on campus. Many of its writers, editors, and contributors have gone on to prominent careers in journalism and public service, including William F. Buckley, Lan Samantha Chang, Joseph Lieberman, Sargent Shriver, and Strobe Talbott.
In the era of social media, it’s tempting to view the death of local newspapers as an unavoidable and inevitable part of modern life. But, as this book shows, a local paper can be an indispensable part of a healthy democracy, and the loss of even a single one leaves citizens in its wake struggling to make sense of their own communities.