I
have purchased a copy of the N. Y.
Daily News for the last time.
I
started reading it when I was a child in the 1950s. My father worked the night shift at a financial printing plant in
lower Manhattan and would purchase the early edition on his way home from work
sometime after midnight.
When
I sat at the kitchen table for breakfast before walking about four blocks
to grammar school, the back page would stare me in the face with sports
news. I learned to read the newspaper
from back to front. I enjoyed the
sports coverage (especially of the Yankees), the comic strips (long before
Peanuts started), the gossip columns and sometimes even the hard news.
My
best friend’s father once appeared on the front page when, as a policeman, he
captured a burglar, and the News photographer captured the arrest scene.
My
father served in World War II and his scrap book contains clippings from the
Daily News.
I,
too, clipped a number of articles, coupons and comic strips from the paper over
the years.
Recently,
I noticed that many of the features I liked in the newspaper have
disappeared. I started to only buy the
Sunday edition because it still had a number of sections I enjoyed, including
the comics, Parade Magazine, weekly TV listings and interesting sports coverage. It was still a bargain at $1.50.
Then,
they raised the price to $2.00, and instead of adding more value, they cut more
features.
Now
comes the news that they have fired half of their staff. They claim they want to concentrate on
online news. (See the news report at the end of this post.)
I
had a further connection to this newspaper.
While attending law school, I worked for a law firm who had offices in
the then Daily News Building on 42nd Street in Manhattan. The firm even represented the newspaper and
I remember being sent into the press room to serve a subpoena on someone
representing the labor union.
But
now, with this once great newspaper going down the drain, I do not intend to go
down the drain with it.
So,
to paraphrase The Beatles, “I heard the news today, oh boy” and it was not
good.
Goodbye,
old friend.
JULY 23, 2018 / 12:34 PM
Storied tabloid N.Y. Daily News slashes half
its news staff
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The New York Daily News, the city’s
scrappy, 99-year-old tabloid, is laying off half of its editorial staff, as
U.S. newspapers continue to struggle with sharply declining advertising revenue
and readership, it said on Monday.
The cuts
at the Pulitzer Prize-winning daily paper, known for eye-catching front-page
headlines and taking on the city’s power players, including real estate
developer Donald Trump long before he was elected president, drew criticism
from both average readers and politicians who bristled at how the paper covered
them.
Owner
Tronc Inc said the cuts are intended to make the paper a stronger competitor
online.
“We are reducing today the size of the editorial team by
approximately 50 percent and refocusing much of our talent on breaking news -
especially in the areas of crime, civil justice and public responsibility,”
Tronc said in a memo to staff.
The Daily News employed about 85 journalists prior to the
announcement, according to rival New York Post, owned by News Corp.
