Death of the Daily News
The Daily News is the nation’s oldest college newspaper. Founded on January 28, 1878, it is financially and editorially independent. The News publishes Monday through Friday during the academic year and is distributed throughout Yale and New Haven. In addition to the daily newspaper, the News also publishes WKND, a weekly magazine and special issues such as the Game Day Issue, Commencement Issue and the First Year Issue in collaboration with Yale’s cultural centers and affiliated student groups.
The News is renowned for its deep reporting, investigative journalism and in-depth analysis of the world around us. Its staff of journalists is not afraid to take a stand on the issues that matter to its readers, but also knows how to find the right balance between reporting what happened and why it happened.
But the News is not immune to the sweeping disruption that has caused many local newspapers across America to shut down and for millions of people to find their news elsewhere, often through social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. In Death of the Daily News, Andrew Conte follows the struggles of a small Pennsylvania town—Mckeesport—to make sense of its community after losing its local paper. His account is both a tribute to the past and an exploration of how we might save the future of journalism in America.
Conte has found a compelling story in the decline of a great American institution, and he tells it with skill and conviction. A superbly written book, it will be appreciated by readers of journalism and those interested in how the culture of our country has changed in the era of digital disruption.
In its heyday, the Daily News had enormous circulation, rivaling even its sensational competitor the New York Post, but it was not immune to economic difficulties, which resulted in a steady decline through the middle of the twentieth century. By the turn of the 21st century, it was still able to draw considerable readership but well below its peak numbers.
The current Daily News is the ninth most widely circulated newspaper in the United States, printing about 200,000 copies per day. It is owned by tronc, the publishing operations of the former Tribune Company, and has been based in New York City since 1919. It is not related to the earlier newspaper of the same name, which was founded in 1855 and closed in 1906. The News’ current editors and staff are not the same as those of the original newspaper, and it has long favored a more moderate-to-liberal political orientation than its arch-rival, the New York Post. The newspaper’s website is often criticized for being hopelessly cluttered, clunky and difficult to navigate. Ad Fontes Media rates it as Skewed Left in terms of bias and Reliable, Analysis/Fact Reporting in terms of reliability.