New York Daily News
From RAGEPATH Wiki
- 1989: Trump reportedly offered to buy the New York Daily News. “New York magazine quotes a source who says that Donald Trump has talked with the owners of the New York Daily News about buying the paper. The paper turned a small profit in 1988, after years of losing money.” (Palm Beach Post, July 28, 1989)
- 1997: The executive editor of the New York Daily News was fired, reportedly in part because of his resistance to expanding the paper’s celebrity gossip coverage of figures like Donald Trump. “Pete Hamill was ousted as editor of the New York Daily News yesterday after his insistence on slashing coverage of celebrities and pop culture produced repeated clashes with owner Mortimer Zuckerman. […] The move was widely panned in the West 33rd Street newsroom, where more than 100 staffers had signed a keep-Pete petition and there was grumbling about Zuckerman's reputation for changing editors more often than some ballclubs change managers. […] But some staffers say Hamill, 62, was wedded to an outdated vision of New York and was something of a disappointment. One called Hamill ‘a great guy’ but was puzzled by his utter lack of interest in Donald Trump and other New York glitterati.” (Washington Post, September 5, 1997)
- The paper’s executive editor, Pete Hamill, had also briefly worked for Abe Hirschfeld at the New York Post. “The renowned columnist and novelist, who had been on the job less than eight months, quit after a breakfast meeting at which Hamill refused Zuckerman's request that he continue with reduced authority. […] Hamill had never run anything before, except for five wild weeks in 1993 when he led a staff revolt at the New York Post</ii> and was fired by eccentric owner Abe Hirschfeld. The Brooklyn-born son of Irish immigrants had less interest in Ivana Trump than in meat-and-potatoes reporting that would appeal to immigrants and other working-class readers.” (<i>Washington Post, September 5, 1997)
- Zuckerman fired Hamill for focusing too heavily on local news and neglecting celebrity coverage. “Ironically, in light of the media hand-wringing over coverage of Princess Diana, Zuckerman had chided Hamill for giving short shrift to Diana's $3 million auction of her designer dresses in June. According to a source familiar with the conversation, Zuckerman observed that People magazine had done quite well by putting the princess on the cover 43 times. […] Hamill's brief tenure was not helped by the fact that the News's circulation dropped by 30,000, to 728,000, from March 1996 to last March, while the flashier New York Post jumped 10,000, to 428,000.” (Washington Post, September 5, 1997)
- Shortly after the paper’s editor was fired for refusing to cover Donald Trump aggressively, the new executive editor published a series of excerpts from a book written by Trump. “Debby Krenek, a 41-year-old Texas native who came to The Daily News a decade ago and rose steadily through the ranks, was named editor in chief of the newspaper yesterday. She is the first woman in its 77-year history to be given the top newsroom position. […] In choosing Ms. Krenek to replace Mr. Hamill, Mr. Zuckerman made close to a 180-degree turn. […] One of the tensions between Mr. Hamill and Mr. Zuckerman had been Mr. Hamill's limited appetite for celebrity news, particularly if it involved the British royal family or Donald Trump. Since Ms. Krenek assumed his duties, The Daily News has prominently run excerpts of Mr. Trump's latest book.” (New York Times, October 30, 1997)
- 2016: The Daily News was struggling with plunging circulation and unprofitability, as Zuckerman unsuccessfully explored selling the paper. “On a recent afternoon, Jim Rich, the editor in chief of The Daily News, sat at his computer playing around with front-page headlines, a few well-chosen words that would capture the day's biggest news: Sarah Palin's endorsement of Donald Trump in the Republican presidential primary. […] Mr. Rich walked it out into the newsroom for feedback. The paper's copy chief, Jon Blackwell, proposed an alternative: ‘I'M WITH STUPID!’ […] The News, which was founded nearly 100 years ago, loses millions of dollars a year. When its owner, Mortimer B. Zuckerman, tried to sell the paper early last year, interest was light. […] Six rumor-soaked months after putting the paper on the market, Mr. Zuckerman took it off. The layoffs, which claimed dozens of reporters, came soon after in September.” (New York Times, January 30, 2016)
- The Daily News' provocative covers and headlines gave it a cultural relevance far larger than its modest readership and circulation would suggest. “As the Iowa caucus results rolled in Monday night, the wheels were surely turning in the minds of editors at the New York Daily News. Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump - the local entry and a favorite tabloid target - was losing to Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. Which way to go with Tuesday's cover? […] The Daily News went with a running theme: ‘Dead clown walking.’ […] It was the latest in a series of attention-grabbing covers that have shifted the conversation around the struggling paper. Just a few months ago, after an aborted sale and sweeping layoffs, The News seemed to have completed its devolution from the model of a big-city tabloid to a battered symbol of the diminished state of America's newspapers. But the recent string of covers, which were all widely shared on social media, have sent a very different message - if not about the paper's long-term financial prospects, then at least about its continuing cultural relevance.” (Washington Post, February 2, 2016)
- The Daily News gained notoriety in 2016 for its savage headlines ridiculing Donald Trump. “The New York Daily News revealed its disgust for Donald Trump with new vigor on Wednesday after Trump won the New Hampshire primary. Depicting Trump as a psycho clown on its cover, the paper compared Trump supporters to ‘mindless zombies’ and proclaimed his Granite State win the ‘Dawn of the Brain Dead.’ […] That is quite a cover. […] The truth is, this is just the latest skirmish in a years-long fight between Trump and the Daily News, much of which has played out on social media.” (Washington Post, February 10, 2016) (Washington Post, February 10, 2016)
