The Daily News, a Distinctive Voice in New York, Is Sold

Tronc, the publisher of The Los Angeles Times and The Chicago Tribune, announced Sept 5 that it had acquired The Daily News, the nearly 100-year-old tabloid that for decades set the city’s agenda with its gossip, sports and city coverage. The deal represents the end of an era for The News, which was long a voice for New York’s working class. It may also signal the end of the political influence of its owner, the real estate magnate Mortimer B. Zuckerman, who often used the paper’s bold, front-page headline — known as “the wood” — for commentary about candidates and politicians, locally and nationally.

The paper’s circulation, which exceeded two million a day in the 1940s, is now in the low hundred thousands. And The Chicago Tribune reported that Tronc purchased The News for just $1, plus the assumption of liabilities. But while The News wields less influence than it once did, it still has the power to resonate in the city and beyond. In 2017, the paper and ProPublica shared the Pulitzer Prize for public service for a series on the New York Police Department’s widespread abuse of eviction rules.