New York Daily Mirror
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 New York Daily Mirror front page heralding death of Marilyn Monroe (6 August 1962) | |
| Type | Daily |
|---|---|
| Format | Tabloid |
| Owner(s) | William Randolph Hearst |
| Publisher | Hearst Corporation |
| Founded | June 24, 1924 |
| Language | English |
| Ceased publication | October 16, 1963 |
| Headquarters | New York City |
The New York Daily Mirror was an American morning tabloid newspaper first published on June 24, 1924, in New York City by the William Randolph Hearst organization as a contrast to their mainstream broadsheets, the Evening Journal and New York American, later consolidated into the New York Journal American. It was created to compete with the New York Daily News which was then a sensationalist tabloid and the most widely circulated newspaper in the United States. Hearst preferred the broadsheet format and sold the Mirror to an associate in 1928, only to buy it back in 1932.
Early on, several bright young writers and photographic journalists joined the Daily Mirror, such as Ring Lardner, Jr., Hy Peskin and the political commentator Drew Pearson.[1] The poet-songwriter Nick Kenny was the paper's radio editor, and Edward Zeltner contributed a column. The gossip columnist Walter Winchell was hired away from the New York Evening Graphic, given his own radio show and syndicated, in his prime — the 1940s and early 1950s — in more than 2000 daily papers. In 1927, the paper devoted substantial resources to the exploitation of scandal with repeated stories on such events as the divorce trial of real estate tycoon Edward West "Daddy" Browning who at age 51 had married 15-year-old Frances Belle "Peaches" Heenan. Management of the Mirror estimated that its content was 10% news and 90% entertainment.
By the 1930s, the Daily Mirror was one of the Hearst Corporation's largest papers in terms of circulation. However, the paper never became a significantly profitable property as its earnings were mostly destined to support the company's faltering afternoon papers, and in its later years it declined substantially despite numerous efforts to turn things around.
Despite having the second-highest daily circulation of an American newspaper at the time, The Daily Mirror closed on October 16, 1963, after the 114-day 1962–63 New York City newspaper strike.[1] The Daily Mirror name rights were at that point acquired by its rival the Daily News.[2]
On January 4, 1971, publisher Robert W. Farrell revived the New York Daily Mirror in name only, as a tabloid, published in Long Island City, Queens. Operating on a shoestring budget,[2] the paper faced obstruction from the Daily News[3] (from whom it had acquired the Daily Mirror name rights after the Daily News let them lapse).[2] This new iteration of the Daily Mirror ceased publication on February 28, 1972.
In popular culture
- Sportswriter and columnist Max Mercy (played by Robert Duvall) wrote for the New York Daily Mirror in the 1984 film The Natural.
- The alternate history novel Sideslip, by Ted White and Dave van Arnam, depicts an alternate reality where Earth is ruled by extraterrestrials and the New York Daily Mirror continues publication into 1968.
- The newspaper's title was referenced fictionally in the 2006 movie The Devil Wears Prada as a publication looking to hire Andrea Sachs.
- In the 1972 film The Godfather, characters Michael Corleone and Kay Adams find out that Vito Corleone has been shot from a copy of the New York Daily Mirror at a newsstand.
See also
References
- ^ a b Kenneth T. Jackson: The Encyclopedia of New York City: The New York Historical Society; Yale University Press; 1995. P. 107.
- ^ a b c Pricci, John. "Truth Can be Overrated," Horserace Insider. (June 1, 2011). Accessed Sept. 20, 2011.
- ^ "533 F.2d 53: Daily Mirror, Inc., Plaintiff-appellant, v. New York News, Inc., et al., Defendants-appellees; United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit. - 533 F.2d 53," Justia. Accessed Sept. 20, 2011.