The Chicago Daily News was an afternoon daily newspaper published between 1876 and 1978 in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It earned thirteen Pulitzer Prizes.
History
The Daily News was founded by Melville E. Stone 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.
As an independent newspaper
During the tenure of longtime owner/editor Victor F. Lawson, the Chicago Daily News pioneered certain areas of reporting, opening one of the first foreign bureaus among U.S. newspapers in 1898 and starting one of the first columns devoted to radio in 1922. It was 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 Fair Department Store to launch WGU-AM, which would eventually be renamed WMAQ-AM. The newspaper would eventually take full ownership of the station and absorb shared band rival WQJ-AM. 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. 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.
Knight Newspapers and Field Enterprises
Sun Times & Daily News Headquarters
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 suburbs.
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.
Pulitzer Prizes
The Chicago Daily News was awarded the Pulitzer Prize thirteen times.
- 1925 Reporting
- 1929 Correspondence
- 1933 Correspondence
- 1938 Editorial Cartooning
- 1943 Reporting
- 1947 Editorial Cartooning
- 1950 Meritorious Public Service
- 1951 International Reporting
- 1957 Meritorious Public Service
- 1963 Meritorious Public Service
- 1969 Editorial Cartooning
- 1970 National Reporting
- 1972 Commentary
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