Founded on January 28, 1878, the Yale Daily News is the oldest college daily newspaper in the United States. It is financially and editorially independent of the university, publishing every weekday during the academic year. The News has a wide range of readers, including students, alumni, faculty, and members of the community in New Haven and across the United States. Its staff includes many prominent figures in journalism and public life, such as William F. Buckley, Lan Samantha Chang, Joseph Lieberman, Sargent Shriver, and Strobe Talbott.
The Yale Daily News Historical Archive provides access to digitized versions of print issues of the Daily News dating back to 1996. The archive is indexed and searchable, and issues are available for download in PDF format. The Archive was made possible by a generous gift from an anonymous Yale College alumnus in 2021. Additional funding from alumni and friends of the Daily News facilitated the migration of the Archive to a new, more user-friendly platform, enables the addition of more recent issues, and will support the ongoing maintenance and growth of the collection.
In the past, the Daily News had a reputation for being a centrist paper that could be described as liberal or conservative. Its editorial stance changed throughout the years, shifting from isolationism in the 1940s to right-wing populism in the 1970s and 1980s, to a more moderately liberal stance in the 1990s. Today, the News is known for its liberal stance and its focus on investigative reporting.
The newspaper also operates a network of local bureaus in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens, at City Hall, within One Police Plaza, and at various state and federal courthouses. It has a radio station, WFAN-AM (now owned by CBS Radio), and an online division, The Daily News Online.
The paper is a member of the New York Press Association, the American Society of Newspaper Editors and the National Association of Broadcasters. The paper has won numerous awards for its journalism, including a Pulitzer Prize in 1919, and has been nominated for more. It has a large online following, with a readership exceeding 10 million visitors per month as of February 2019. In addition to its printed version, it publishes an extensive digital edition. Its flagship building, 220 East 42nd Street near Second Avenue, is an official city and national landmark designed by John Mead Howells and Raymond Hood. It was the inspiration for the fictional Daily Planet building in the first two Superman films. The News moved to a larger headquarters at 450 West 33rd Street (also known as Manhattan West) in 1995, but the 42nd Street location continues to be referred to as the News Building.