Chicago Daily News
Encyclopedia
The Chicago Daily News was an afternoon daily newspaper
published between 1876 and 1978 in Chicago
, Illinois
.
The Daily News was founded by Melville E. Stone
, Percy Meggy, and William Dougherty in 1875 and began publishing early the next year. It strove for mass readership in contrast with its primary competitor, the Chicago Tribune
, which was more influential among the city's elites; for many years, the Daily News boasted a 1¢ newsstand price. Byron Andrews
, fresh out of Hobart College, was one of the first reporters. Victor F. Lawson bought the Chicago Daily News in 1876 and became its business manager. Stone remained involved as an editor and later bought back an ownership stake, but Lawson took over full ownership again in 1888.
newspapers in 1898 and starting one of the first columns devoted to radio in 1922. Lawson introduced many innovations to the business including advancements in newspaper promotion, classified advertising, and syndication of news stories, serials, and comics. The Chicago Daily News became known for its distinctive, aggressive writing style which 1920s editor Henry Justin Smith
likened to a daily novel. In its heyday from the 1930s to 1950s it was widely syndicated and boasted a first-class foreign news service.
In 1922 the rival Chicago Tribune
began to experiment with radio news at Westinghouse
-owned KYW-AM. The Daily News entered into a partnership with The Fair Department Store to launch WGU-AM, which would later be renamed WMAQ-AM. The newspaper would eventually take full ownership of the station and absorb shared band rival WQJ-AM, which was jointly owned by the Calumet Baking Powder Company
and the Rainbo Gardens ballroom. WMAQ would pioneer many firsts in radio—one of them the first complete Chicago Cubs
season broadcast on radio in 1925, hosted by sportswriter-turned-sportscaster Hal Totten.
In 1930, the station obtained a license for an experimental television station, WX9AP, but had already begun transmitting from it just prior to its being granted. Working with Sears Roebuck stores by providing them with the receivers, those present at the stores were able to see Bill Hay, (the announcer for Amos 'n' Andy
), present a variety show from the Daily News building, on August 27, 1930. Ulises Armand Sanabria
was the television pioneer behind this and other early Chicago television experiments. The Chicago Tribune, not to be left out of radio, purchased WDAP and WJAZ to form WGN-AM. In 1931 The Daily News sold WMAQ to NBC
.
In 1929 it moved into a new 26-floor headquarters building at 400 West Madison Street. Designed by architects Holabird & Root
, the Art Deco
structure became a Chicago landmark, and stands today under the name Riverside Plaza. It featured a mural by John W. Norton
depicting the newspaper production process.
After a long period of ownership by Knight Newspapers (later Knight Ridder
), the paper was acquired in 1959 by Field Enterprises
, owned by heirs of the former owner of the Marshall Field and Company department store
chain. Field already owned the morning Chicago Sun-Times
, and the Daily News moved into the Sun-Times building on North Wabash Avenue. A few years later Mike Royko
became the paper's lead columnist, and quickly rose to local and national prominence. However, the Field years were mostly a period of decline for the newspaper, partly due to management decisions but also due to demographic changes; the circulation of afternoon dailies generally declined with the rise of television, and downtown newspapers suffered as readers moved to the suburb
s.
In 1977 the Daily News was redesigned and added features intended to increase its appeal to younger readers, but the changes did not reverse the paper's continuing decline in circulation. The Chicago Daily News published its last edition on Saturday, March 4, 1978. There was a subsequent attempt to make it as an afternoon daily, by a Rosemont
-based company called CDN Publishing Co., Inc. The paper went back into publication with a weekend edition dated August 4–5, 1979. The publisher of the revival was former Illinois governor Richard B. Ogilvie
. This final attempt to gain popularity was not successful and the paper finally went back out of publication a few months later.
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
published between 1876 and 1978 in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
.
History
Melville E. Stone
Melville Elijah Stone was a newspaper publisher, the founder of the Chicago Daily News, and was the general manager of the reorganized Associated Press.-Biography:...
, Percy Meggy, and William Dougherty in 1875 and began publishing early the next year. It strove for mass readership in contrast with its primary competitor, the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
, which was more influential among the city's elites; for many years, the Daily News boasted a 1¢ newsstand price. Byron Andrews
Byron Andrews
-Early life and education:Byron Andrews was born on October 25, 1852, in Argyle, Wisconsin. He is a son of John Cain Andrews and Sarah Andrews. in 1868, he and his parents moved to Evansville, Wisconsin where grew up and he received his early education at the Evansville seminary of Wisconsin. He...
, fresh out of Hobart College, was one of the first reporters. Victor F. Lawson bought the Chicago Daily News in 1876 and became its business manager. Stone remained involved as an editor and later bought back an ownership stake, but Lawson took over full ownership again in 1888.
Independent newspaper
During the longtime tenure of Victor F. Lawson, the Chicago Daily News pioneered certain areas of reporting, opening one of the first foreign bureaus among U.S.United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
newspapers in 1898 and starting one of the first columns devoted to radio in 1922. Lawson introduced many innovations to the business including advancements in newspaper promotion, classified advertising, and syndication of news stories, serials, and comics. The Chicago Daily News became known for its distinctive, aggressive writing style which 1920s editor Henry Justin Smith
Henry Justin Smith
Henry Justin Smith was managing editor of the Chicago Daily News.Smith was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Justin A and Mary L Smith. In 1899, he married his cousin, Katherine Augusta Smith .In 1934, he published a collection of three essays entitled It's The Way It's Written...
likened to a daily novel. In its heyday from the 1930s to 1950s it was widely syndicated and boasted a first-class foreign news service.
In 1922 the rival Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
began to experiment with radio news at Westinghouse
Westinghouse Electric (1886)
Westinghouse Electric was an American manufacturing company. It was founded in 1886 as Westinghouse Electric Company and later renamed Westinghouse Electric Corporation by George Westinghouse. The company purchased CBS in 1995 and became CBS Corporation in 1997...
-owned KYW-AM. The Daily News entered into a partnership with The Fair Department Store to launch WGU-AM, which would later be renamed WMAQ-AM. The newspaper would eventually take full ownership of the station and absorb shared band rival WQJ-AM, which was jointly owned by the Calumet Baking Powder Company
Calumet Baking Powder Company
Calumet Baking Powder Company was an American food company established in 1889 in Chicago, Illinois, by baking powder salesman, William Monroe Wright. His newly formulated double-acting baking powder took its name from the Native American name for a peace pipe given to the lands now known as...
and the Rainbo Gardens ballroom. WMAQ would pioneer many firsts in radio—one of them the first complete Chicago Cubs
Chicago Cubs
The Chicago Cubs are a professional baseball team located in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of Major League Baseball's National League. They are one of two Major League clubs based in Chicago . The Cubs are also one of the two remaining charter members of the National...
season broadcast on radio in 1925, hosted by sportswriter-turned-sportscaster Hal Totten.
In 1930, the station obtained a license for an experimental television station, WX9AP, but had already begun transmitting from it just prior to its being granted. Working with Sears Roebuck stores by providing them with the receivers, those present at the stores were able to see Bill Hay, (the announcer for Amos 'n' Andy
Amos 'n' Andy
Amos 'n' Andy is a situation comedy set in the African-American community. It was very popular in the United States from the 1920s through the 1950s on both radio and television....
), present a variety show from the Daily News building, on August 27, 1930. Ulises Armand Sanabria
Ulises Armand Sanabria
Ulises Armand Sanabria was born in southern Chicago of Puerto Rican and French-American parents.-Career:...
was the television pioneer behind this and other early Chicago television experiments. The Chicago Tribune, not to be left out of radio, purchased WDAP and WJAZ to form WGN-AM. In 1931 The Daily News sold WMAQ to NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
.
In 1929 it moved into a new 26-floor headquarters building at 400 West Madison Street. Designed by architects Holabird & Root
Holabird & Roche
The architectural firm of Holabird & Root was founded in Chicago in 1880. Over the years, the firm's designs have changed many times — from the Chicago School to Art Deco to Modern Architecture to Sustainable Architecture.-History:...
, the Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
structure became a Chicago landmark, and stands today under the name Riverside Plaza. It featured a mural by John W. Norton
John W. Norton
John Warner Norton was an Illinois muralist and easel artist who pioneered the field in the United States.Among his works are the landmark 1929 long ceiling mural for the concourse ceiling of the Chicago Daily News Building , the Ceres mural in the Chicago Board of Trade Building ,...
depicting the newspaper production process.
Knight Newspapers and Field Enterprises
Knight Ridder
Knight Ridder was an American media company, specializing in newspaper and Internet publishing. Until it was bought by The McClatchy Company on June 27, 2006, it was the second-largest newspaper publisher in the United States, with 32 daily newspapers sold.- History :The corporate ancestors of...
), the paper was acquired in 1959 by Field Enterprises
Field Enterprises
Field Enterprises was a private holding company founded on August 31, 1944, by Marshall Field III and others whose main asset was the Chicago Sun. That same year the company acquired the book publishers Simon & Schuster and Pocket Books....
, owned by heirs of the former owner of the Marshall Field and Company department store
Department store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
chain. Field already owned the morning Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
, and the Daily News moved into the Sun-Times building on North Wabash Avenue. A few years later Mike Royko
Mike Royko
Michael "Mike" Royko was a newspaper columnist in Chicago, who won the 1972 Pulitzer Prize for commentary...
became the paper's lead columnist, and quickly rose to local and national prominence. However, the Field years were mostly a period of decline for the newspaper, partly due to management decisions but also due to demographic changes; the circulation of afternoon dailies generally declined with the rise of television, and downtown newspapers suffered as readers moved to the suburb
Suburb
The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...
s.
In 1977 the Daily News was redesigned and added features intended to increase its appeal to younger readers, but the changes did not reverse the paper's continuing decline in circulation. The Chicago Daily News published its last edition on Saturday, March 4, 1978. There was a subsequent attempt to make it as an afternoon daily, by a Rosemont
Rosemont, Illinois
Rosemont is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States located immediately northwest of Chicago. The village was incorporated in 1956, though it had been settled long before that...
-based company called CDN Publishing Co., Inc. The paper went back into publication with a weekend edition dated August 4–5, 1979. The publisher of the revival was former Illinois governor Richard B. Ogilvie
Richard B. Ogilvie
Richard Buell Ogilvie was the 35th Governor of Illinois from 1969 to 1973. A wounded combat veteran of World War II, he achieved fame as the mafia-fighting Sheriff of Cook County, Illinois in the 1960s....
. This final attempt to gain popularity was not successful and the paper finally went back out of publication a few months later.
Pulitzer Prizes
The Chicago Daily News was awarded the Pulitzer Prize thirteen times.- 19251925 Pulitzer Prize-Journalism awards:*Reporting:**James W. Mulroy and Alvin H. Goldstein of Chicago Daily News, for their service toward the solution of the murder of Robert Franks, Jr., in Chicago on May 22, 1924, and the bringing to justice of Nathan F...
Reporting - 19291929 Pulitzer Prize-Journalism awards:*Public Service:**New York Evening World For its effective campaign to correct evils in the administration of justice, including the fight to curb "ambulance chasers," support of the "fence" bill, and measures to simplify procedure, prevent perjury and eliminate politics from...
Correspondence - 19331933 Pulitzer Prize-Journalism awards:*PublicService:** New York World-Telegram for its series of articles on veterans relief, on the real estate bond evil, the campaign urging voters in the late New York City municipal election to "write in" the name of Joseph V. McKee, and also the articles exposing the lottery...
Correspondence - 19381938 Pulitzer Prize-Journalism awards:* Public Service:** Bismarck Tribune for its news reports and editorials entitled, Self Help in the Dust Bowl.* Reporting:...
Editorial Cartooning - 19431943 Pulitzer Prize-Journalism awards:*Public Service: Omaha World-Herald For its initiative and originality in planning a state-wide campaign for the collection of scrap metal for the war effort...
Reporting - 19471947 Pulitzer Prize-Journalism awards:*Public Service:** The Baltimore Sun for its series of articles by Howard M. Norton dealing with the administration of unemployment compensation in Maryland, resulting in convictions and pleas of guilty in criminal court of 93 persons....
Editorial Cartooning - 19501950 Pulitzer Prize-Journalism awards:*Public Service:** The Chicago Daily News and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, for the work of George Thiem and Roy J. Harris, respectively, in exposing the presence of 37 Illinois newspapermen on an Illinois State payroll.*Local Reporting:...
Meritorious Public Service - 19511951 Pulitzer Prize-Journalism awards:*Public Service:**The Miami Herald and the Brooklyn Eagle, for their crime reporting during the year.*Local Reporting:** Edward S...
International Reporting - 19571957 Pulitzer Prize-Journalism awards:*Public Service:**the Chicago Daily News, for determined and courageous public service in exposing a $2,500,000 fraud centering in the office of the State Auditor of Illinois, resulting in the indictment and conviction of the State Auditor and others...
Meritorious Public Service - 19631963 Pulitzer Prize-Journalism awards:*Public Service:**The Chicago Daily News, for calling public attention to the issue of providing birth control services in the public health programs in its area.*Local Reporting, Edition Time:...
Meritorious Public Service - 19691969 Pulitzer Prize-Journalism awards:*Public Service:**The Los Angeles Times, for its expose of wrongdoing within the Los Angeles City Government Commissions, resulting in resignations or criminal convictions of certain members, as well as widespread reforms....
Editorial Cartooning - 19701970 Pulitzer Prize-Journalism awards:*Public Service:** Newsday, Garden City, New York, for its three-year investigation and exposure of secret land deals in eastern Long Island, which led to a series of criminal convictions, discharges and resignations among public and political officeholders in the area.*Local...
National Reporting - 19721972 Pulitzer PrizeThe following are the Pulitzer Prizes for 1972.Information in this article from The Pulitzer Prices offices.-Journalism awards:*Public Service:**The New York Times, for the publication of the Pentagon Papers.*Local General or Spot News Reporting:...
Commentary
Additional sources
- Story of Chicago in Connection with the Printing Business (Chicago: Regan Printing House. 1912)
- Dennis, Charles H. Victor Lawson; His Time and His Work (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1935)