A publication issued daily that reports news and information of interest to the public. The term is often used for newspapers but can also refer to magazines or other types of publications.
The daily news first appeared in 1919 in New York City as the Illustrated Daily News, which was the first tabloid newspaper in the United States. It quickly gained popularity by focusing on sensational stories of crime, scandal, and violence, lurid photographs, and other entertainment features. It was the eleventh highest-circulation newspaper in the world at its peak in 1950 with a daily circulation of more than 2 million copies.
By the mid-1970s, however, it had lost much of its previous popularity to the more sensational rival New York Post. The Daily News was losing millions of dollars annually, and a ten-month strike by the newspaper’s ten unions in October 1990 resulted in a pre-tax operating loss of $114.5 million. During the strike the Daily News continued to publish, relying on non-union replacement workers and a few of its own striking union members.
In January 1993 businessman Mortimer Zuckerman, who had previously turned around U.S. News and World Report and Atlantic Monthly, acquired the Daily News for $36 million. The purchase included a new printing plant with four-color capability. The Daily News moved from its historic home at 220 East 42nd Street near Second Avenue to 450 West 33rd Street (now known as Manhattan West). Its subsequent headquarters, a landmark art deco building with a large globe in the lobby, was featured in two of the Superman movies.
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