The Yale Daily News is a student-run newspaper that has published every weekday while Yale is in session since 1878. It is the oldest college daily in the United States and remains editorially and financially independent from the University. The newspaper covers national and local news in New Haven and at Yale, publishes a weekly Friday supplement called WKND, and produces several special issues each year including the Yale-Harvard Game Day Issue, Commencement Issue, First Year Issue and others celebrating the diversity of Yale’s communities. Many Yale Daily News alumni have gone on to prominent careers in journalism or public life, including William F. Buckley, Lan Samantha Chang, Joseph Lieberman, Sargent Shriver, Strobe Talbott and Calvin Trillin.
The Daily News was the first tabloid newspaper in the United States. Founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson and initially named the Illustrated Daily News, it attracted readers with sensational coverage of crime and scandal and lurid photographs and entertainment features. The News was an early subscriber to the Associated Press wirephoto service and developed an extensive staff of photographers.
Like other popular dailies of the era, the News was often critical of government officials and was a leader in investigative journalism. The paper was also known for its foreign coverage, and its reporters included Frank Knox (who became U.S. secretary of the navy under Franklin D. Roosevelt) and Marshall Field IV, owner of the Chicago Sun-Times (which folded in 1978).
The News was based in 220 East 42nd Street, an art deco building designed by John Mead Howells and Raymond Hood. The News moved to 450 West 33rd Street (known as Manhattan West) in 1995, but the old News Building still stands, now occupied by a supermarket and housing the former News radio station WPIX-TV. Each article in The Daily News includes “Comprehension & Critical Thinking Questions” and “Background” resources to help students understand the news story. You can sign up to receive a daily email with the questions and answers.