The daily news is a newspaper, magazine, or other periodical publication that contains current events and opinions. It may also contain editorial cartoons, advertisements and other features. Some newspapers publish a single edition per day, while others may publish more than one in a week or on different days of the week. Historically, daily news has been a staple of American democracy, but the decline of local newspapers in the United States has led to an increase in “news deserts,” where residents lack access to traditional, authoritative local journalism.
The New York Daily News, founded in 1919, was the first successful tabloid newspaper in the United States. It attracted readers with sensational coverage of crime and scandal, lurid photographs, and celebrity gossip. The paper was often critical of politics, and its writers were frequently accused of bias and partisanship. In the early 1930s it was one of the most popular papers in the country, with a circulation of over 2,000,000.
By the end of the century, the Daily News was still a major newspaper with a significant national circulation, but it lost ground to competing tabloids. The paper became less sensational, but continued to offer intense city news coverage and cover celebrities and the latest sports. Its headquarters was in the iconic News Building on Second Avenue, designed by John Mead Howells and Raymond Hood.
In McKeesport, Pennsylvania, a community that grew with the newspaper industry, the death of the local paper in 2015 left a gap that has been hard to fill. In this deeply reported book, Andrew Conte explores what happened in that town and offers clues about the broader challenges to a free press.
A daily newspaper for Yale students, The Daily News is a primary source of news and debate on campus. It is the oldest college daily in the nation and has provided many of its editors, columnists, and contributors with careers in journalism and public service, including William F. Buckley, Lan Samantha Chang, Joseph Lieberman, Sargent Shriver, and Garry Trudeau.
Despite the ongoing digital disruption of American journalism, these examples of innovative work in local news are a sign that there is life after the death of print. The pieces that we selected highlight the best of collaborative journalism, community engagement, and national-local partnerships. Please help support these important efforts by donating to your favorite nonprofit news organization through NewsMatch, now until December 31.