Founded in 1878, the Yale Daily News (YDN) is the oldest college daily newspaper in the United States and serves as the primary source of news and debate at Yale. YDN is published every weekday when classes are in session and is owned by the Yale University community through the Student Publishing Company, an independent entity established by students. In addition to the main paper, YDN also publishes a Friday supplement, WKND, a magazine known as the YDN Magazine and several special issues each year, including the Yale-Harvard Game Day Issue, the Commencement Issue and the First Year Issue. Many former YDN editors and writers have gone on to prominent careers in journalism and public life, including William F. Buckley, Lan Samantha Chang, John Hersey, Joseph Lieberman, Sargent Shriver, Strobe Talbott, Calvin Trillin, Garry Trudeau, and Jacob Weisberg.
As America moves away from print to digital media, circulation of newspapers has been in decline for years. The decline has been most pronounced among the larger metro dailies. However, smaller regional and local newspapers have been holding steady or even increasing their numbers. The chart below shows estimated total daily U.S. newspaper circulation as of 2022. Data through 2012 comes from the trade group formerly known as the Newspaper Association of America, or NAA. Data from 2013 onward comes from the News Media Center’s analysis of financial statements from publicly traded U.S. newspaper companies, a number that in 2022 numbered four and included a diverse group of large national and midsize metropolitan daily papers as well as local and regional papers.
The New York Daily News was one of the most popular newspapers in the United States during the 1920s and 1930s. Like other popular dailies of the time, it focused on political wrongdoing such as the Teapot Dome scandal and social intrigue such as the romance between Wallis Simpson and King Edward VIII that led to his abdication. The newspaper also emphasized photography and was an early adopter of the Associated Press wirephoto service. Its building on East 42nd Street, designed by architects John Mead Howells and Raymond Hood, was an official city and national landmark.
The Daily News continues to publish with a high level of integrity, bringing its readers intense city news coverage and the latest celebrity gossip as well as politics and opinions. It is a daily source of information for residents of New York and a major source of news and opinion for people around the world.
The New York Daily News is under the control of a hedge fund, Alden Global Capital, that has enacted a series of cost cutting measures since taking over in 2016. The fund’s draconian cost-cutting has put a strain on the paper’s editorial staff and its ability to cover local and national news events. The paper is still publishing, but it is a much different Daily News than in its heyday. The current and former presidents of Tribune Publishing have expressed hope that the company will be bought by another media firm, but no such deal has yet been announced.