Daily news, or daily newspapers, are printed publications that cover a wide range of current events, and may also include editorials, opinion pieces and cartoons. In addition to national and international news, some daily newspapers also feature local and regional news and community stories. The daily news has become a staple of many communities, and serves to inform and entertain its readers. Its popularity has made the daily newspaper one of the most successful forms of mass media in history.
As the nation’s oldest college daily newspaper, the Yale Daily News publishes Monday through Friday during the school year and is financially and editorially independent of both Yale and New Haven. Founded in 1878, the paper has a long tradition of covering campus and student life. Its coverage includes a wide variety of topics, from campus politics and sports to cultural events and academic news. The News is also known for its annual special issues, such as the Yale-Harvard Game Day Issue and the Commencement Issue, which are published in collaboration with the university’s various cultural centers and student groups.
In its first century, the Daily News had a reputation as a brash and tabloidy paper that could keep up with the times. Its subject matter included everything from political scandal, such as the Teapot Dome Scandal, to social intrigue like Wallis Simpson’s romance with King Edward VIII, and it was an early adopter of Associated Press wirephotography. The News also had a strong presence in city news, and the downtown Manhattan building that housed the paper until 1995 was an official city landmark designed by John Mead Howells and Raymond Hood.
The News’s editorial stance was often high-minded and populist, but more often leaned right. During World War II, it supported isolationism and opposed the United States entering the war, but in the decades that followed, the newspaper adopted a more centrist stance. In recent years, it has shifted toward a more liberal position.
The News is now under the control of a hedge fund, Alden Global Capital, which has enacted buyouts, cuts and outsourced the printing plant since taking over Tribune Publishing last year. Despite this, the paper has continued to produce top-quality journalism and attracts readers from all over the country and world. Death of the Daily News is a deeply reported, timely, and illuminating look at what happens to a town when its newspaper dies, and how some people are trying to bring it back to life. With wit and empathy, Andrew Conte shows us the stages of grief that a community goes through as it grapples with this loss. This is a book that will resonate with anyone who cares about local journalism and how to keep it alive in this changing world.