Founded in 1878, the Yale Daily News is the oldest college newspaper in the United States. The YDN archives contain digitized versions of all printed issues dating back to the first one in 1878. The YDN is published every weekday when the University is in session and is available free to all members of the Yale community. Many YDN editors, writers and contributors have gone on to prominent careers in journalism or public life. These include William F. Buckley, Lan Samantha Chang, John Hersey, Joseph Lieberman, Sargent Shriver, Garry Trudeau, and Calvin Trillin, among others.
In addition to their main newsroom at 4 New York Plaza in Lower Manhattan, the Daily News maintains bureaus in the Bronx and Brooklyn, at City Hall and within One Police Plaza, as well as various state and federal courthouses in New York. It also produces a Sunday edition called the Sunday News. The News has also created television and radio stations, including the flagship AM station WPIX (channel 11 in New York City), which shares its call letters and is a simulcast of its namesake newspaper. The News also established the NBC affiliate WFAN-FM.
The daily paper is edited by a team of senior editors, who are sometimes referred to as the editor-in-chief or executive editor. There are also a number of staffers who focus on specific subject areas, such as local or national news, sports, or politics. Each of these departments is supervised by a senior editor who has overall responsibility for that area. The responsibilities of the editorial department are to select and edit stories for publication, and to provide analysis and synthesis that translate raw data into information telling the reader “what it all means.”
Most newspapers have four major departments: the editorial, production/printing, circulation, and advertising. In addition, most have non-newspaper-specific departments found in other businesses of comparable size, such as accounting, marketing, human resources, and information technology. The overall manager or chief executive of the newspaper is often referred to as the publisher.
The ruthless cost cutting by the hedge fund that now owns the New York Daily News is taking its toll on editorial and other staff. It has also affected the paper’s reputation and credibility.
The era of streaming movies to our smartphones and tablets may have washed away Blockbuster, but it has given birth to another kind of video store. NBC’s Gadi Schwartz reports. Plus, the death of a Holocaust survivor and his legacy for survivors. That’s this week’s Daily News Spotlight.