Daily news is a newspaper that covers national and local current events. It also features New York exclusives, politics, gossip and entertainment. Its award-winning writers, columnists and opinion formers bring you the news from the world’s greatest city and beyond.
The Daily News is the oldest tabloid newspaper in the United States and was founded in 1855, a year before its rival, the New York Times, opened its doors. It reached its highest circulation in 1947, at 2.4 million copies per day. It is renowned for its intense city news coverage and its celebrity gossip. In addition, it has a strong sports section and is known for its editorials, comics and opinion pieces.
In 1975, the Daily News rolled out what would become one of its most famous headlines. It read, “FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD”, which referred to President Gerald Ford’s speech the previous day in which he vetoed a bankruptcy bail-out for New York City. The front page headline is widely credited with contributing to Ford’s 1976 defeat in the presidential election against Jimmy Carter. The Daily News began a policy of moving to a more centrist political stance after that.
Throughout the 1980s, the paper struggled financially. In 1986, the Tribune Company took over the newspaper and began a campaign to break its unions. This resulted in a strike that lasted five months. By the end of that time, the paper was losing $70 million a quarter. The Daily News had to hire non-union replacement staff and pay its union members severance payments in order to continue publishing the paper.
The Daily News regained its footing in the 1990s, winning two Pulitzer Prizes for commentary (E.R. Shipp’s pieces on race, welfare and social issues in 1996, and Mike McAlary’s coverage of police brutality against Abner Louima in 1998) and developing a reputation for defending the First Amendment and the rights of those who felt they were being ignored by the rest of New York City. It also launched the popular quarterly (later monthly) insert BET Weekend for African Americans and moved out of its historic home of 65 years, the News Building, into a single-story office at 5 Manhattan West.
The Daily News is a great resource for IAS aspirants. It provides comprehensive analysis of daily news which is important from UPSC exam perspective. In addition to that, it offers daily current affairs handouts which help in improving your understanding of significant news stories and thereby enhance your performance in the exam.