Newsday

Newsday is an American daily newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties and the New York City borough of Queens on Long Island, although it is also sold throughout the New York metropolitan area.

For other uses, see Newsday (disambiguation).

Newsday
The February 21, 2012 front page of Newsday
TypeDaily newspaper
FormatTabloid
Owner(s)Newsday Media
(Patrick Dolan)
PublisherDebby Krenek
EditorDebbie Henley
FoundedSeptember 3, 1940 (1940-09-03)
Headquarters235 Pinelawn Road
Melville, New York, U.S. 11747
Circulation437,000 Daily
495,000 Sunday[1]
ISSN0278-5587
OCLC number5371847
Websitewww.newsday.com
Melville, NY, headquarters
Newsday logo in 2009
Newsday logo in 2007

As of 2009, its weekday circulation of 377,500 was the 11th-highest in the United States, and the highest among suburban newspapers.[2] By January 2014, Newsday's total average circulation was 437,000 on weekdays, 434,000 on Saturdays and 495,000 on Sundays.[1]

The newspaper's headquarters is in Melville, New York, in Suffolk County.

History

Founded by Alicia Patterson and her husband, Harry Guggenheim, the publication was first produced on September 3, 1940 from Hempstead.[3] For many years until a major redesign in the 1970s, Newsday copied the Daily News format of short stories and numerous pictures. (Ironically, Patterson was fired as a writer at her father's Daily News in her early 20s, after getting the basic facts of a divorce wrong in a published report.) After Patterson's death in 1963, Guggenheim became publisher and editor.

In 1967, Guggenheim turned over the publisher position to Bill Moyers and continued as president and editor-in-chief. But Guggenheim was disappointed by the liberal drift of the newspaper under Moyers, criticizing what he called the "left-wing" coverage of Vietnam War protests.[4][5] The two split over the 1968 presidential election, with Guggenheim signing an editorial supporting Richard Nixon, when Moyers supported Hubert Humphrey.[6]

Guggenheim sold his majority share to the then-conservative Times-Mirror Company over the attempt of newspaper employees to block the sale, even though Moyers offered $10 million more than the Times-Mirror purchase price; Moyers resigned a few days later.[4][7][8] Guggenheim, who died a year later, disinherited Moyers from his will.[9]

After the competing Long Island Press (not to be confused with the alternative weekly of the same name) ceased publication in 1977, Newsday launched a separate Queens edition, followed by a New York City edition dubbed New York Newsday. In June 2000, Times Mirror merged with the Tribune Company, partnering Newsday with the New York City television station WPIX (Channel 11), also owned by Tribune.

With the Times Mirror-Tribune merger, the newspaper founded by Alicia Patterson was now owned by the company that was founded by her great-grandfather, Joseph Medill — which owns the Chicago Tribune and, until 1991, also owned her father's Daily News. (Tribune sold the Daily News to British newspaper magnate Robert Maxwell. After Maxwell's death in 1992, his publishing empire collapsed and Mortimer Zuckerman purchased the Daily News.) Chicago, Illinois, real estate magnate Samuel Zell purchased Tribune in 2007.[2]

News Corporation, headed by CEO Rupert Murdoch, attempted to purchase Newsday for US$580 million in April 2008.[10] This was soon followed by a matching bid from Zuckerman[11] and a $680 million bid from Cablevision.[12] In May 2008, News Corporation withdrew its bid,[13] and on May 12, 2008, Newsday reported that Cablevision would purchase the paper for $650 million.[14] The sale was completed July 29, 2008.[15]

Altice, a Netherlands-based multinational telecoms company, bought Cablevision, including Newsday and News 12 in 2016.[16][17] However, Altice then sold a majority (75%) stake in Newsday back to Cablevision's former owner Charles Dolan and his son Patrick, making Patrick the CEO of Newsday.[18][19] Altice disposed of its remaining stake in Newsday at the end of July 2018, which, combined with Charles Dolan's transfer of shares to son Patrick, makes Patrick the sole owner of Newsday.[20]

Editorial style

Despite having a tabloid format, Newsday is not known for being sensationalistic, as are other local daily tabloids, such as the New York Daily News and the New York Post.[21][22] This causes Newsday to sometimes be referred to as "the respectable tabloid".[23]

In 2004, the alternative weekly newspaper Long Island Press (which is not related to the defunct daily of the same name) wrote that Newsday has used its clout to influence local politics in Nassau and Suffolk Counties.[24]

Bill Moyers briefly served as publisher.[25] During the tenure of publisher Robert M. Johnson in the 1980s, Newsday made a major push into New York City. The paper's roster of columnists and critics has included Cathy Young, Jimmy Breslin, Barbara Garson, Normand Poirier, Murray Kempton, Gail Collins, Pete Hamill, Sydney Schanberg, Robert Reno (died 2012), Jim Dwyer, sportswriter Mike Lupica, music critic Tim Page, and television critic Marvin Kitman. The paper featured both advice columnists Ann Landers and Dear Abby for several years. From 1985 to 2005, Michael Mandelbaum wrote a regular foreign affairs analysis column for Newsday. Noted writer and biographer Robert Caro was an investigative reporter. Its features section has included, among others, television reporters Verne Gay and Diane Werts, TV/film feature writer Frank Lovece, and film critic Rafer Guzman. Newsday carries the syndicated columnist Froma Harrop. Pulitzer Prize winner Walt Handelsman's editorial political cartoons animation are a nationally syndicated feature of Newsday. In the 1980s, a new design director, Robert Eisner, guided the transition into digital design and color printing.

Newsday created and sponsored a "Long Island at the Crossroads" advisory board in 1978, to recommend regional goals, supervise local government, and liaison with state and Federal officials.[26][27][28] It lasted approximately a decade.

On March 21, 2011, Newsday redesigned its front page, scrapping the nameplate and font used since the 1960s in favor of a sans-serif wordmark.[29]

Circulation

In 2008, Newsday was ranked 10th in terms of newspaper circulation in the United States.[2]

A circulation scandal in 2004 revealed that the paper's daily and Sunday circulation had been inflated by 16.9% and 14.5%, respectively, in the auditing period September 30, 2002 to September 30, 2003.[30] The Audit Bureau of Circulation adjusted average weekday circulation to 481,816 from 579,599; average Saturday circulation to 392,649 from 416,830; and average Sunday circulation to 574,081 from 671,820, and instituted twice-yearly audits.[30]

On October 28, 2009, Newsday changed its web site to a paid-subscriber only model. Newsday.com would open its front page, classified ads, movie listings, and school closings to all site visitors, but access beyond this content would require a weekly fee – US$5 as of 2010. This fee would be waived for subscribers of the print edition of the paper, as well as for subscribers to parent-company Cablevision's Internet service.[31] Through its first three months only 35 non-Optimum, non-Newsday subscribers signed up for the paid web site.[32]

Pulitzer Prize

Newsday has won 19 Pulitzer Prizes and has been a finalist for 20 additional:[33] If no individual is listed, award is for Newsday staff.

  • 1954: Public Service (Winner)
  • 1970: Public Service (Winner)
  • 1970: Editorial Cartooning (Winner) — Thomas F. Darcy
  • 1974: Public Service (Winner)
  • 1974: Criticism (Winner) — Emily Genauer, Newsday Syndicate
  • 1980: Local Investigative Specialized Reporting (Finalist) — Carole E. Agus, Andrew V. Fetherston Jr. and Frederick J. Tuccillo
  • 1982: International Reporting (Finalist) — Bob Wyrick
  • 1982: Criticism (Finalist) — Marvin Kitman
  • 1984: Local General or Spot News Reporting (Winner)
  • 1984: International Reporting (Finalist) — Morris Thompson
  • 1984: Criticism (Finalist) — Dan Cryer
  • 1985: International Reporting (Winner) — Josh Friedman, Dennis Bell, and Ozier Muhammad
  • 1985: Commentary (Winner) — Murray Kempton
  • 1986: Feature Writing (Finalist) — Irene Virag
  • 1989: Investigative Reporting (Finalist) — Penny Loeb
  • 1990: Specialized Reporting (Finalist) – Jim Dwyer
  • 1991: Spot News Reporting (Finalist)
  • 1991: Spot News Photography (Finalist)
  • 1992: Spot News Reporting (Winner)
  • 1992: International Reporting (Winner) — Patrick J. Sloyan
  • 1993: International Reporting (Winner) — Roy Gutman
  • 1994: Explanatory Journalism (Finalist)
  • 1995: Investigative Reporting (Winner) — Brian Donovan and Stephanie Saul
  • 1995: Commentary (Winner) — Jim Dwyer
  • 1996: Explanatory Journalism (Winner) — Laurie Garrett
  • 1996: Beat Reporting (Winner) — Bob Keeler
  • 1996: International Reporting (Finalist) — Laurie Garrett
  • 1997: Spot News Reporting (Winner)
  • 1998: Beat Reporting (Finalist) — Laurie Garrett
  • 1999: Criticism (Finalist) — Justin Davidson
  • 1999: Editorial Writing (Finalist) — Lawrence C. Levy
  • 2002: Criticism (Winner) — Justin Davidson
  • 2004: Breaking News Reporting (Finalist)
  • 2005: International Reporting (Winner) — Dele Olojede
  • 2005: Explanatory Reporting (Finalist)
  • 2007: Editorial Cartooning (Winner) — Walt Handelsman
  • 2008: Public Service (Finalist) — Jennifer Barrios, Sophia Chang, Michael R. Ebert, Reid J. Epstein, Jennifer Sinco Kelleher, Eden Laikin, Herbert Lowe, Joseph Mallia, Jennifer Maloney, Luis Perez and Karla Schuster
  • 2013: Editorial Writing (Finalist) — Editorial Board staff
  • 2014: Public Service (Finalist)
  • In the 1985 comedy/thriller Compromising Positions, the lead character, played by Susan Sarandon, is a former Newsday journalist who is trying reestablish her career by selling a freelance story to the publication.
  • On the 1996–2005 CBS sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, the fictional character Ray Barone (played by Ray Romano) is employed by Newsday as a sportswriter.
  • The lead female character in the Crocodile Dundee films works at Newsday.
  • The episode "The Homer They Fall" in season eight of The Simpsons quotes Newsday calling boxing "the cruelest sport".
  • Naked Came the Stranger is a 1969 novel written as a literary hoax poking fun at contemporary American culture. Although credited to "Penelope Ashe", it was in fact written by a group of twenty-four journalists led by Newsday columnist Mike McGrady. McGrady's intention was to write a deliberately terrible book with a lot of sex, to illustrate the point that popular American literary culture had become mindlessly vulgar. The book fulfilled the authors' expectations and became a bestseller in 1969; they revealed the hoax later that year, further spurring the book's popularity.
  • Former editor Howard Schneider appears in the documentary Three Identical Strangers to discuss Newsday's coverage of three young men who discovered they were separated as infants.[34]
gollark: I think the only laser I have is in an unused DVD player somewhere.
gollark: Okay, wrong phrasing, proverbs mean things, but actually making decisions on the basis that someone said something catchy a while ago and people repeated (and probably edited) it is silly.
gollark: It would... probably be better to just say that you have other stuff to do, and ignore random proverbs.
gollark: You can't really "counter" common proverbs, they're not particularly meaningful.
gollark: The other GNU/Linuxy phone around is the PinePhone by Pine64, which is significantly cheaper, but less modular and whatnot.

References
  1. "Cablevision Form 10-K, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission February 26, 2014". Securities and Exchange Commission. February 26, 2014. Retrieved May 7, 2014.
  2. Arango, Tim; Pérez-Peña, Richard (March 21, 2008). "3 Moguls in Talks to Buy Newsday". The New York Times.
  3. Arlen, A., Arlen, M.J. The Huntress: The Adventures, Escapades, and Triumphs of Alicia Patterson: Aviatrix, Sportswoman, Journalist, Publisher (Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2016) ISBN 9781101871133
  4. "The Press: How Much Independence?". Time. April 27, 1970. Retrieved February 15, 2010.
  5. Keeler, Robert F. (1990). Newsday: a candid history of the respectable tabloid. Morrow. pp. 460–61. ISBN 1-55710-053-5.
  6. "Newsday Goes For Nixon, But Moyers Balks". Chicago Tribune. October 17, 1968. Retrieved February 15, 2010.
  7. "Moyers Resigns Post at Newsday". New York Times. May 13, 1970. Retrieved February 15, 2010.
  8. Raymont, Henry (March 13, 1970). "Newsday Employes [sic] Seek to Block Sale of the Paper". New York Times. Retrieved February 15, 2010.
  9. "$12 Million Left to Charity by Guggenheim". Chicago Tribune. January 30, 1971.
  10. "Newsday (April 23, 2008): "Murdoch tells LI officials deal for Newsday close", by Ellen Yan and James T. Madadore". Archived from the original on April 25, 2008. Retrieved April 23, 2008.
  11. Reuters (April 16, 2008): "Zuckerman submits $580 million Newsday bid: source", by Robert Macmillan and Kenneth Lee
  12. Reuters (May 2, 2008): "Cablevision submits $650 mln bid for Newsday: source" by Jui Chakravorty Das
  13. Reuters (May 11, 2008)
  14. Cablevision announces deal to buy Newsday Archived May 13, 2008, at the Wayback Machine, Newsday, May 12, 2008
  15. Cablevision Completes Newsday Buy from Tribune, Broadcasting and Cable, July 29, 2008
  16. Kostov, Nick. "Altice to Buy Cablevision for $10 Billion," Wall Street Journal (Sept. 17, 2015).
  17. Madore, James T. "Gordon McLeod Steps Down as Publisher of Newsday Media Group," Newsday (June 29, 2016).
  18. Madore, James T. "Patrick Dolan Becomes Majority Owner of Newsday Media Group," Newsday (July 7, 2016).
  19. Smith, Gerry. "Patrick Dolan Acquires Majority Stake in Newsday from Altice," Bloomberg (July 7, 2016).
  20. Solnik, Claude (August 1, 2018). "Patrick Dolan becomes Newsday sole owner". Long Island Business News. Retrieved August 19, 2018.
  21. Stevens, John D., Sensationalism and the New York Press (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991) ISBN 0-231-07396-8
  22. Hamill, Pete, News Is a Verb: Journalism at the End of the Twentieth Century (New York: Ballantine Books, 1998) ISBN 0-345-42528-6
  23. Keeler, Robert F. (1990). Newsday: a candid history of the respectable tabloid. Morrow. pp. 460–61. ISBN 1-55710-053-5.
  24. Long Island Press, "Game Over: How the Paper's Monopoly Control Has Warped its Coverage and Hurt Long Island", by Christopher Twarowski, December 30, 2004: "Numerous politicians in both counties, county workers, directors of community groups and other sources claim that 'Newsday' uses its position as Long Island's only daily paper to strong-arm county officials, nonprofit directors, local leaders and rival publications and even to influence pieces of legislation — often through fear, intimidation and other anti-competitive practices — to further its political or commercial agenda".
  25. The Museum of Broadcast Communications: Moyer biography
  26. "A Decade Later, Still at Crossroads", by Tom Morris, Newsday (April 19, 1988):
  27. "L.I. Planners Need Cooperation, Not Competition" (editorial), Newsday (Dec. 13, 1988)
  28. "Back to the Future", Newsday (Feb. 4, 1991): by Greg Steinmetz
  29. "Meet the new Newsday" Newsday (March 21, 2011)
  30. Audit Bureau of Circulation, "ABC Releases Newsday Audit", November 16, 2004
  31. Flamm, Matthew (October 22, 2009). "Newsday to begin charging for online articles". Crain's New York. Retrieved October 31, 2009.
  32. Koblin, John (January 26, 2010). "After Three Months, Only 35 Subscriptions for Newsday's Web Site". The New York Observer. Retrieved April 26, 2012.
  33. Pulitzer Prize official site: Newsday search results
  34. "Film chronicles LI triplets separated at birth". Newsday. Retrieved March 16, 2019.
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