Chicago Daily News

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The Chicago Daily News was a daily afternoon newspaper published in Chicago between 1876 and 1978 .

history

Daily News Building

The Daily News was founded in 1875 by Melville E. Stone, who later became the manager of the reorganized Associated Press , Percy Meggy and William Dougherty, and was published from the following year. Unlike its main competitor, the Chicago Tribune , which was more aimed at the city's elite, the Daily News aspired to be a mass newspaper. For many years the newspaper was only 1 ¢ . Ulysses S. Grants ' future correspondent , Byron Andrews, who had just graduated from Hobart College , was one of the earliest correspondents. In 1876, Victor Lawson, who later became chairman of the Associated Press, bought the Chicago Daily News and became its managing director. Stone stayed on as editor of the paper and later bought back a stake. In 1888 Lawson bought back all of the shares.

Independent newspaper

AB Blair of the Chicago Daily News, October 1915

During Lawson's time, the Chicago Daily News pioneered certain areas of coverage. In 1898 she opened one of the first foreign offices of a US newspaper and in 1922 wrote one of the first columns devoted to radio . Lawson introduced several innovations to the business, such as improved newspaper advertising, the introduction of ads, and content syndication of news, series and comic strips . The Daily News became known for its distinctive, aggressive style of writing, which editor Henry Justin Smith compared to a daily novel . In its heyday in the 1930–1950s, it was syndicated on a large scale and boasted a world class foreign press service.

In 1922, her rival Chicago Tribune began experimenting with radio news on Westinghouse Electric's KYW-AM station. The Daily News began a partnership with the department store “The Fair Store” and founded the station “WGU-AM”, which was later renamed “WMAQ-AM”. The newspaper later took over all shares in the radio station and also took over the rival station "WQJ-AM", in which the "Calumet Baking Powder Company" and the "Rainbo Gardens ballroom" had shares. The broadcaster WMAQ was a pioneer in the radio industry on several events; Among other things, he reported in 1925 as the first radio station on the entire season of the Chicago Cubs , which was hosted by Hal Totten.

In 1930 the radio station received a license for the experimental television station "W9XAP", but had already started broadcasting from there before the license was granted. By working with Sears stores to provide him with receivers, the people in the stores were able to see Bill Hay, the announcer for the radio and television sitcom "Amos 'n' Andy," Daily News Building ”presented a variety show. Ulysses Armand Sanabria was the television pioneer behind this and behind other early Chicago television experiments. In response, the Chicago Tribune bought the channels "WDAP" and "WJAZ" and founded "WGN-AM". In 1931 the Daily News sold WMAQ to NBC .

In 1929 the Daily News moved to a new 26-story building at 400 West Madison Street. It was designed by the architects Holabird & Root in the Art Deco style and became a Chicago landmark that is now known as the "Riverside Plaza". There was also a mural by W. Norton showing the newspaper production process.

Knight Newspapers and Field Enterprises

Headquarters of the Sun Times and Daily News

After the media company "Knight Newspapers" (later "Knight Ridder") was the owner of the newspaper, it was bought in 1959 by "Field Enterprises", which belonged to the former heirs of the chain "Marshall Field and Company". Field already owned the Chicago Sun-Times and the Daily News moved to the Sun-Times building on North Wabash Avenue. A few years later, Mike Royko became the newspaper's main columnist and quickly rose to prominence locally and nationally. However, the Field's years have been largely a period of decline for the newspaper, due in part to business decisions and demographic change. The circulation of daily afternoon newspapers has generally declined due to the rise of television , and city center newspapers have lost their customers as they moved to the suburbs.

In 1977 the Daily News was redesigned to include features for a younger audience, but these changes did not stop the continued decline in circulation. The last issue of the Chicago Daily News was published on Saturday, March 4th, 1978. Later there was an attempt by the Rosemont, Illinois-based company "CDN Publishing Co., Inc." to republish the newspaper. The date for this was set to the weekend of April 4-5. Scheduled August 1979. The publisher of the new newspaper was former Illinois Governor Richard B. Ogilvie . This last attempt was unsuccessful, and the newspaper stopped publishing a few months later.

Known employees

Well-known journalists for the Chicago Daily News included: George Ade , Herbert Lawrence Block , Finley Peter Dunne , William J. Eaton , Eugene Field , Ben Hecht , Frank Knox , Carl Sandburg , Rob Warden, and George Weller .

Pulitzer Awards

The Chicago Daily News has received the Pulitzer Prize 13 times :

  • 1925: reporting
  • 1929: correspondence
  • 1933: correspondence
  • 1938: caricature
  • 1943: reporting
  • 1947: caricature
  • 1950: Public service
  • 1951: international reporting
  • 1957: Public service
  • 1963: Public service
  • 1969: caricature
  • 1970: domestic reporting
  • 1972: comment

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Frank William Scott, Edmund Janes James. Newspapers and Periodicals of Illinois, 1814-1879 , Harvard University, 1910, 127.
  2. ^ Former President & Publisher, Daily News . Advertising Federation of America.
  3. ^ The Press: Genius . Time Magazine. January 4, 1926.
  4. "Tom Gootee's History of WMAQ-Chapter 3" . richsamuels.com.
  5. "Tom Gootee's History of WMAQ Chapter 11" . richsamuels.com.
  6. "Tom Gootee's History of WMAQ Chapter 6" . richsamuels.com.
  7. "Early WMAQ-Hal Totten, WMAQ's first sportscaster" . richsamuels.com.
  8. ^ Copy of the license from the television broadcaster . richsamuels.com.
  9. ^ Letter from Bill Parker , commissioned to build the television studio in the Chicago Daily News building in 1929. televisionexperimenters.com.
  10. ^ Transcript of the first broadcast by W9XAP . richsamuels.com
  11. ^ Transcript of Radio Corporation of America's September 1931 article , richsamuels.com
  12. ^ "Chicago architecture-Riverside Plaza" . Chicago Architecture Info.

literature

  • Story of Chicago in Connection with the Printing Business . Chicago. Regan Printing House, 1912.
  • Charles H. Dennis. Victor Lawson; His Time and His Work . Chicago. University of Chicago Press, 1935.

Web links

Commons : Chicago Daily News  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files