Mort Zuckerman Puts N.Y. Daily News On The Block

Mort Zuckerman Puts N.Y. Daily News On The Block

The ledger is bleeding red ink. If Zuckerman can't find a buyer, he may just put it the paper down like a dying horse. In fact, it's even possible that Murdoch could buy the News for the express purpose of closing it, thus turning two unprofitable tabloids into one profitable one. If the Daily News dies, its passing will truly mark the end of an era. Not only is its former lobby an architectural landmark, and the model for the Daily Planet office in the Superman films, but the paper used to be the most widely circulated paper in America. In the period just after WW2, its circulation exceeded two million daily and four million on Sunday. It sold more copies back then than any newspaper sells today, which was an amazing achievement because The News never had any significant reach beyond the Big Apple, while the three major contemporary papers (USA Today, WSJ, NY Times) are circulated nationally.

The News has never been the model for journalistic excellence or memorable prose, but if you lived in any of New York's boroughs back in the day and rode public transportation (as I did in the 60s), you read the Daily News. The reporting was unremarkable, to say the least, but its tabloid size made it easy to read while standing up or in a confined space and, unlike the staid Times, it had impassioned coverage of sports and pop culture. I did read the Times on Sunday, when I had time to spare, but during the week, when I had to catch up on the news while holding a subway strap, I read the Daily News.

The News almost died once before, in 1991, when it filed for bankruptcy protection. You might say it almost died twice in that same era, because its first post-bankruptcy owner soon died under mysterious circumstances, which again put the paper on life support. The paper was subsequently acquired by Zuckerman, however, and has remained under his wing since 1993.