Founded in 1878, the Yale Daily News (YDN) is the oldest college daily newspaper in the United States. It is published Monday through Friday during the academic year. The YDN is editorially and financially independent from the University. A number of YDN editors, writers and contributors have gone on to notable careers in journalism and public life. They include William F. Buckley, Lan Samantha Chang, John Hersey, Joseph Lieberman, Sargent Shriver, Strobe Talbott, Calvin Trillin and Garry Trudeau.

In 1919 the tabloid New York Daily News was founded by Joseph Medill Patterson, publisher of the Chicago Tribune. It was the first successful tabloid in the country, and attracted readers with sensational reporting of crime, scandal and violence, lurid photographs and cartoons.

The News grew to be one of the most popular newspapers in the country, with a circulation peak of more than 2 million copies a day. For many years it was locked in a fierce rivalry with its even more sensational competitor, the New York Post. The News developed a reputation for protecting the rights of New York City citizens, especially those who were disadvantaged. In 1996 it won a Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Commentary for E.R. Shipp’s articles on race, welfare and social issues.

However, by the 1980s, the Daily News was suffering from declining revenue and dwindling readership. Its parent company, the Tribune Company, offered it up for sale. It was eventually purchased by controversial British media mogul Robert Maxwell, who sought to revive the newspaper’s reputation as an aggressively pro-American tabloid. However, the Daily News continued to lose money, and by the early 1990s it was losing more than $1 million a month.

By 1991, the newspaper was so in debt that it was considering closing down altogether. Maxwell negotiated successfully with the unions and managed to turn things around, although the Daily News never fully recovered its former glories.

In addition to its main stories, the Daily News features a variety of shorter, more local and regional pieces. The newspaper also contains a large number of photo galleries and multimedia, as well as the weekly Sunday Magazine. YDN staff also creates special issues for the newspaper each year, including the Yale-Harvard Game Day Issue and the Commencement Issue. In 2020-21, the News will launch a series of special issues celebrating the Yale Black, Latino and Asian American communities in collaboration with Yale’s cultural centers and affiliated student groups. The YDN also offers a comprehensive collection of historical YDN stories through the Yale Daily News Historical Archive. This digitized archive is available free of charge and may be used for educational purposes. For more information on using YDN material, visit the YDN Rights and Permissions site.