The Yale Daily News is the oldest college newspaper in the United States, published every weekday during the semester when classes are in session. It has a long history of fostering important ideas and promoting debate on issues that have shaped our country for over 130 years. Many Yale Daily News alumni have gone on to achieve success in journalism, public service, and other fields.
The Daily News is known for its sensational pictorial coverage and a willingness to go the extra mile to get a front page story, never more so than when it published an image of Ruth Snyder mid-electrocution in 1928. The resulting headline: “DEAD!” set a new standard for attention-grabbing front pages.
In the decades that followed, The Daily News established itself as the largest newspaper in the nation – reaching a peak circulation of 2.4 million copies a day – and became one of the most influential newspapers in the world. Its brash style and outspoken politics made it a polarizing read, and its refusal to shy away from controversial stories earned the Daily News a reputation for being “the eyes, ears and honest voice of New York City.”
After the death of publisher Joseph Medill Patterson in 1975, the paper began to move away from its stridently Republican leanings toward a more flexible centrist position. As the 1970s came to a close, the New York City landscape was transforming, and The Daily News led the way with innovative coverage of urban rioting and the ongoing struggle against poverty and crime in the city.
The Daily News’ first foray into television was in 1948, when it founded WPIX-TV and later purchased what would become the FM radio station WFAN-FM. Both stations are still housed in the original Daily News Building, and are currently owned by CBS Corporation. The News also maintained local bureaus in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens.
In March 1991, controversial British media mogul Robert Maxwell purchased the Daily News from the Tribune Company. After a brief bidding war with Mort Zuckerman, the owner of The Atlantic magazine and Conrad Black, founder of Hollinger Inc., which publishes Britain’s Daily Telegraph and America’s Chicago Sun-Times, Maxwell was able to outbid both competitors by leveraging the contracts that he had successfully negotiated with nine of the newspaper’s ten unions. Upon his death in November 1991, Maxwell left the Daily News hundreds of millions in debt.