Daily news is the kind of information that helps us understand our world. It can be anything from political scandals and celebrity gossip to local sports and weather. It can also be a wake-up call to action and activism for a better future.
Founded in 1919, the New York Daily News was one of America’s first successful tabloid newspapers. Its sensational coverage of crime, corruption, and violence attracted a large readership in the early twentieth century. The News was known for its large photographs and lurid headlines, as well as city news, celebrity gossip, classified ads, and comics. It was a major competitor with the more mainstream rival, the New York Post.
The News was the oldest of the five big-city papers to publish daily, and it had a reputation for being hard-hitting, sexy, and aggressive. It was the first newspaper to employ a wire photo service, which allowed it to report breaking stories in real time. The News was also a pioneer in investigative reporting, uncovering government wrongdoing in the Teapot Dome Scandal and royal intrigue, such as Wallis Simpson’s relationship with King Edward VIII.
In recent years, the e-commerce revolution and declining advertising revenue have put the newspaper industry in turmoil. The digital landscape has resulted in massive disruption for traditional journalism, putting thousands of reporters out of work and closing newsrooms across the country. This has left vast areas of the United States without access to local journalism, often referred to as news deserts.
This book explores what happens when local journalism dies and how the societal impact can be mitigated. Andrew Conte is a longtime journalist and the director of the Center for Media Innovation at Point Park University in Pittsburgh, which serves as a laboratory for the present and future of local journalism. He takes McKeesport, Pennsylvania as a case study and looks at what happened when its daily paper went under in 2015, examining how citizens now make sense of the news on their own.
The Front Pages feature allows readers to browse the front pages of hundreds of newspapers from all over the United States and many nations around the world. Readers can click on any image to view the full-size PDF, or visit the website associated with that particular newspaper to read the article. This site is updated every day to capture a snapshot of journalism in motion worldwide.