The New York Daily News is one of the largest newspapers in the United States with a circulation well over 700,000. The paper, which is printed in tabloid form, first rolled off the printing presses in 1919. It is run by Mortimer Zuckerman and used to call itself "New York's Picture Newspaper". (It is now known as "New York's Hometown Newspaper".) The paper still includes plenty of photographs, as well as news, gossip about people, classified ads, comics, a sports section, and an opinion section. (Bill Gallo is a prominent sports cartoonist of the New York Daily News.)
The newspaper, which has won 10 Pulitzer Prizes, was founded by Joseph Medill Patterson, a member of the family that published the Chicago Tribune, and from its founding until 1991 was owned by the Trib. The News later established WPIX-TV and WPIX-FM.
At one point in the early 1990s, the Daily News almost went out of business. However, millionaire Robert Maxwell offered financial assistance to the News to help it stay in business. When Maxwell died shortly thereafter, the News seceded from his publishing empire.
The New York Daily News is usually somewhat moderate in its editorial positions; it is neither as stridently right-wing as its fellow New York tabloid the New York Post nor consistently liberal like its more-respected broadsheet competitor The New York Times.
Though its competition with the Post has forced it to engage in some of the more sensationalistic tactics of its competitor, it is still respected in the industry for the quality of its writers (which past and present have included Jimmy Breslin, Pete Hamill, William Reel , David Hinckley , Mike Lupica, Juan Gonzalez and Jami Bernard ) and its solid coverage of the city. Its Voice of the People letters section is seen as a good way to read the pulse of the city.
The News' headlines and photos have often been considered among the most creative in journalism. Famous headlines from the Daily News include:
- DEAD! (Picture of the execution of Ruth Snyder, 1928)
- WHO'S A BUM! (describing the Brooklyn Dodgers' championship of 1955)
- FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD (bankruptcy of New York City government and the refusal of President Gerald Ford to give financial assistance to the city prompted this headline in 1975; the paper nonetheless endorsed him for President the next year)
- CRYBABY (referring to then - Congressman Newt Gingrich in the mid 1990s, for his allegedly shutting down the US government during budget talks)
- TOP COP ADMITS HANKY PANKY (about the marital travails of then-Police Commissioner Ben Ward)
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