The ''New York Daily Mirror'' was an American morning

tabloid newspaper A tabloid is a newspaper with a compact page size smaller than broadsheet. There is no standard size for this newspaper format. Etymology The word ''tabloid'' comes from the name given by the London-based pharmaceutical company Burroughs We ...

first published on June 24, 1924, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

by the

William Randolph Hearst William Randolph Hearst Sr. (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American businessman, newspaper publisher, and politician known for developing the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His flamboya ...

organization as a contrast to their mainstream

broadsheet A broadsheet is the largest newspaper format and is characterized by long Vertical and horizontal, vertical pages, typically of . Other common newspaper formats include the smaller Berliner (format), Berliner and Tabloid (newspaper format), ta ...

s, the ''Evening Journal'' and ''New York American'', later consolidated into the ''

New York Journal American :''Includes coverage of New York Journal-American and its predecessors New York Journal, The Journal, New York American and New York Evening Journal'' The ''New York Journal-American'' was a daily newspaper published in New York City from 1937 t ...

''. It was created to compete with the ''

New York Daily News The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ta ...

'' 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. Hearst hired Philip Payne away from the ''Daily News'' as managing editor of the ''Mirror''. Payne's circulation building stunts ranged from reviving the sensational Hall-Mills murder case to sponsoring and being a passenger on the ''

Old Glory Old Glory is a nickname for the flag of the United States. The original "Old Glory" was a flag owned by the 19th-century American sea captain William Driver (March 17, 1803 – March 3, 1886), who flew the flag during his career at sea an ...

'', transatlantic flying record attempt, in which he was killed. Early on, several bright young writers and photographic journalists joined the ''Daily Mirror'', such as

Ring Lardner, Jr. Ringgold Wilmer Lardner Jr. (August 19, 1915 – October 31, 2000) was an American screenwriter. A member of the "Hollywood Ten", he was blacklisted by the Hollywood film studios during the late 1940s and 1950s after his appearance as an ...

Hy Peskin Hyman Peskin (November 5, 1915 – June 2, 2005) was an American photographer known for several famous photographs of American sports people and celebrities published by ''Sports Illustrated'' and ''Life''. He was a pioneer of sports photography, w ...

and the political commentator Drew Pearson.Kenneth T. Jackson: ''The Encyclopedia of New York City'': The New York Historical Society; Yale University Press; 1995. P. 107. The poet-songwriter Nick Kenny was the paper's radio editor, and Edward Zeltner contributed a column. The gossip columnist

Walter Winchell Walter Winchell (April 7, 1897 – February 20, 1972) was a syndicated American newspaper gossip columnist and radio news commentator. Originally a vaudeville performer, Winchell began his newspaper career as a Broadway reporter, critic and co ...

and managing editor

Emile Gauvreau Emile Gauvreau (1891-1956) was an American journalist, newspaper and magazine editor and author of novels and nonfiction books. He is best known as editor of two of New York's entertainment and sensation oriented "jazz age" tabloid newspapers. E ...

were both hired away from the ''

New York Evening Graphic The ''New York Evening Graphic'' (not to be confused with the earlier '' Daily Graphic)'' was a tabloid newspaper published from 1924 to 1932 by Bernarr Macfadden. Exploitative and mendacious in its short life, the ''Graphic'' exemplified tablo ...

'', the city's third sensational tabloid. Winchell was given his own radio show and syndicated, in his prime—the 1940s and early 1950s—in more than 2000 daily papers. During the three tabloids' 1920s circulation war, management of the ''Mirror'' estimated that its content was 10% news and 90% entertainment. For example, the ''Mirror'' and ''Graphic'' both had devoted substantial resources to the exploitation of

scandal A scandal can be broadly defined as the strong social reactions of outrage, anger, or surprise, when accusations or rumours circulate or appear for some reason, regarding a person or persons who are perceived to have transgressed in some way. Th ...

with repeated stories on such events as the

divorce Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganizing of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the ...

trial of real estate

tycoon A business magnate, also known as a tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur or investor who controls, through perso ...

Edward West "Daddy" Browning who at age 51 had married 16-year-old Frances Belle "Peaches" Heenan, as well as constant coverage of the decade's celebrities like

Rudolph Valentino Rodolfo Pietro Filiberto Raffaello Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguolla (May 6, 1895 – August 23, 1926), known professionally as Rudolph Valentino and nicknamed The Latin Lover, was an Italian actor based in the United States who starred ...

Babe Ruth George Herman "Babe" Ruth Jr. (February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948) was an American professional baseball player whose career in Major League Baseball (MLB) spanned 22 seasons, from 1914 through 1935. Nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Su ...

and

Charles A. Lindbergh Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974) was an American aviator, military officer, author, inventor, and activist. On May 20–21, 1927, Lindbergh made the first nonstop flight from New York City to Paris, a distance o ...

. By the 1930s, the ''Daily Mirror'' was one of the

Hearst Corporation Hearst Communications, Inc., often referred to simply as Hearst, is an American multinational mass media and business information conglomerate based in Hearst Tower in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Hearst owns newspapers, magazines, televis ...

'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 in 1963, after the 114-day 1962–63 New York City newspaper strike (which also contributed to the death of the ''Herald Tribune'', the ''Journal-American'' and the ''World-Telegram and Sun''). On October 16, 1963, the ''Daily Mirror'' published its last issue. The ''Daily Mirror'' name rights were at that point acquired by its rival the '' Daily News''. On January 4, 1971, publisher

Robert W. Farrell Farrell Publications is the name of a series of American comic book Publisher, publishing companies founded and operated by Robert W. Farrell in the 1940s and 1950s, including Elliot Publishing Company, Farrell Comic Group, and Excellent Publicatio ...

revived the ''New York Daily Mirror'' in name only, as a tabloid, published in

Long Island City, Queens Long Island City (LIC) is a residential and commercial neighborhood on the extreme western tip of Queens, a borough in New York City. It is bordered by Astoria to the north; the East River to the west; New Calvary Cemetery in Sunnyside to the ...

. Operating on a shoestring budget,Pricci, John
"Truth Can be Overrated,"
Horserace Insider. (June 1, 2011). Accessed Sept. 20, 2011. the paper faced obstruction from the ''Daily News''"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. (from whom it had acquired the ''Daily Mirror'' name rights after the ''Daily News'' let them lapse). This new iteration of the ''Daily Mirror'' ceased publication on February 28, 1972.

References

{{Hearst Defunct newspapers published in New York City Newspapers established in 1924 Publications disestablished in 1963 1924 establishments in New York City 1963 disestablishments in New York (state) Daily newspapers published in New York City

See also

References