''The Daily News'', originally the Palo Alto Daily News, is a

free newspaper Free newspapers are distributed free of charge, often in central places in cities and towns, on public transport, with other newspapers, or separately door-to-door. The revenues of such newspapers are based on advertising. They are published at d ...

owned by

MediaNews Group MNG Enterprises, Inc., doing business as Digital First Media and MediaNews Group, is a Denver, Colorado-based newspaper publisher owned by Alden Global Capital. The company has been growing its portfolio and as of May 2021, owns over 100 newspa ...

and located in Menlo Park. Founded in 1995, it was formerly published seven days a week and at one point had a circulation of 67,000 (a figure that included five zoned editions which no longer exist). The ''Daily News'' is distributed in red newspaper racks and in stores, coffee shops, restaurants, schools and major workplaces. As of April 7, 2009 the paper ceased to be published as ''The Palo Alto Daily News'' and was consolidated with other San Francisco Peninsula ''Daily News'' titles; it published five days a week, Tuesday through Saturday. Weekday editions were delivered to selected homes. While continuing to publish daily online, ''The Daily News'' cut its print edition back to three days a week in 2013, and one day a week in 2015.

Format and content

Originally, the ''Daily News'' had a distinctive format with pages that were 16 inches long and 10.75 inches wide, dimensions which were thought to make the Daily News easier to hold than traditional broadsheet papers, but allow more stories to be published per page than a typical tabloid. On May 5, 2009, the paper went to a smaller page size (11-1/4 by 11-3/8 inches) to save money. "The change also brands our newspaper as different than the local competition, and makes it easier for our on-the-go readers to carry around," an announcement to readers said. They now have a larger version than their original one, with different sections, like add-ins or inserts. The newspaper prints a combination of local stories and news from a number of wire services including

The Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

Bay City News Bay City News is a news agency based in the San Francisco Bay Area that focuses on general interest news. It employs about 25 reporters and editors and is overseen by veteran journalist Katherine Ann Rowlands. History Established in 1979, Bay C ...

, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' and McClatchy-Tribune (the former Knight-Ridder Tribune). Local columnists include John Angell Grant,

Larry Magid Larry Magid (born 1947) is an American journalist, technology columnist and commentator. He is the author of several books. Early life Lawrence J. Magid was born in 1947 in Brooklyn, NY. He grew up in Los Angeles, California. He received his BA ...

and John Reid. Syndicated opinion columns include those by

Bob Herbert Robert Herbert (born March 7, 1945) is an American journalist and former op-ed columnist for '' The New York Times''. His column was syndicated to other newspapers around the country. Herbert frequently writes on poverty, the Iraq War, racis ...

Thomas Friedman Thomas Loren Friedman (; born July 20, 1953) is an American political commentator and author. He is a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner who is a weekly columnist for ''The New York Times''. He has written extensively on foreign affairs, global tr ...

and

Maureen Dowd Maureen Brigid Dowd (; born January 14, 1952) is an American columnist for ''The New York Times'' and an author. During the 1970s and early 1980s, Dowd worked for ''The Washington Star'' and ''Time'', writing news, sports and feature articles. ...

History

The ''Palo Alto Daily News'' debuted on December 7, 1995 with an initial circulation of 3,000. Within nine months, the paper was in the black. The paper generates all of its revenue from advertising. The original publishers, Jim Pavelich and

Dave Price David M. Price (born October 18, 1966) is an American journalist and weather forecaster who is currently working for WNBC-TV in New York as a weekday afternoon weatherman. Price is perhaps best known for his time on CBS television's ''The Earl ...

, understood that the advertising would reach more potential customers if the paper were free and thus widely available. The newspaper's press run is determined by consumer demand; by 1997, the circulation had nearly tripled to 10,000 copies a day. On August 9, 2000, the newspaper expanded into

San Mateo County San Mateo County ( ), officially the County of San Mateo, is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 764,442. Redwood City is the county seat, and the third most populated city following Daly ...

by opening three dailies, the ''

San Mateo Daily News The ''San Mateo Daily News'' was a free daily newspaper in San Mateo, California published 6 days a week with an average daily circulation of 22,000. The newspaper was founded August 9, 2000 by Dave Price (journalist) and Jim Pavelich, who also pu ...

'', ''

Redwood City Daily News The ''Redwood City Daily News'' was a free daily newspaper in Redwood City, California published 6 days a week with an average daily circulation of 8,000. The newspaper was founded August 9, 2000 by Dave Price (journalist), Dave Price and Jim Pave ...

'' and '' Burlingame Daily News''. These became the first

free daily newspaper Free newspapers are distributed free of charge, often in central places in cities and towns, on public transport, with other newspapers, or separately door-to-door. The revenues of such newspapers are based on advertising. They are published at d ...

s in San Mateo County, although within two years, other free dailies started in that area, replicating the format of the Daily News. On May 15, 2002, the ''Daily News'' launched the ''

Los Gatos Daily News The ''Los Gatos Daily News'', now called the ''Los Gatos News'' was a free newspaper in Los Gatos, California published 3 days a week. The newspaper was founded May 15, 2002 by Dave Price (journalist) and Jim Pavelich, who also published the '' ...

''. In addition to Los Gatos, it served Saratoga,

Campbell Campbell may refer to: People Surname * Campbell (surname), includes a list of people with surname Campbell Given name * Campbell Brown (footballer), an Australian rules footballer * Campbell Brown (journalist) (born 1968), American television ne ...

Cupertino Cupertino ( ) is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States, directly west of San Jose on the western edge of the Santa Clara Valley with portions extending into the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The population was 57,8 ...

and western San Jose. In the first quarter of 2003, the combined circulation of the ''Daily News'' reached 55,000 per day, and on March 23 a home-delivered Sunday edition was added. On November 12, 2004, the Daily News beat the competition by putting out an "extra" minutes after a jury in

Redwood City Redwood City is a city on the San Francisco Peninsula in Northern California's Bay Area, approximately south of San Francisco, and northwest of San Jose. Redwood City's history spans its earliest inhabitation by the Ohlone people to being a po ...

convicted

Scott Peterson Scott Lee Peterson (born October 24, 1972) is an American convicted murderer. In 2004, he was convicted of the first-degree murder of his wife, Laci, who was pregnant at the time, and the second-degree murder of their unborn son, Conner, in Mod ...

of murdering his wife Laci and their unborn son. Editors put the "Redwood City Daily News" flag at the top of the Extra because the trial was taking place in that city, but it was distributed in all of the communities served by the Daily News, including Palo Alto. On February 15, 2005,

Knight Ridder Knight Ridder was an American media company, specializing in newspaper and Internet publishing. Until it was bought by McClatchy on June 27, 2006, it was the second largest newspaper publisher in the United States, with 32 daily newspaper brand ...

, then the nation's second-largest newspaper publisher, bought the ''Palo Alto Daily News'' and its four sister papers for $25 million. Price and Pavelich, the publishers, were asked to stay on during the transition, but they left by the end of the year. In May 2005, ''the Daily News'' launched the '' East Bay Daily News'', which served

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...

Emeryville Emeryville may refer to: * Emeryville, California Emeryville is a city located in northwest Alameda County, California, in the United States. It lies in a corridor between the cities of Berkeley and Oakland, with a border on the shore of San ...

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

, Albany and the

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...

neighborhood of Rockridge. In January 2006, Shareef Dajani, formerly general manager of the Knight Ridder-owned Hills Newspapers, a group of weeklies in Alameda County, was named publisher. In March, Dajani fired editor Diana Diamond, a long-time Palo Altan who was also a columnist. Her dismissal triggered numerous letters-to-the-editor and the competing Palo Alto Weekly picked up her column. Dajani replaced Diamond with Lucinda Ryan, who had worked with him at the Hills Newspapers. In March 2006, Knight Ridder agreed to be purchased by

The McClatchy Company The McClatchy Company, commonly referred to as simply McClatchy, is an American publishing company incorporated under Delaware's General Corporation Law and based in Sacramento, California. It operates 29 daily newspapers in fourteen states and ...

, owner of the ''

Sacramento Bee ''The Sacramento Bee'' is a daily newspaper published in Sacramento, California, in the United States. Since its foundation in 1857, ''The Bee'' has become the largest newspaper in Sacramento, the fifth largest newspaper in California, and the 2 ...

'' among other papers. McClatchy later announced it would sell 12 of the 32 Knight Ridder dailies, including the ''

San Jose Mercury News ''The Mercury News'' (formerly ''San Jose Mercury News'', often locally known as ''The Merc'') is a morning daily newspaper published in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is published by the Bay Area News Group, a subsidiar ...

'' and two other regional papers, ''

The Monterey County Herald ''The Monterey County Herald'', sometimes referred to as the ''Monterey Herald'', is a daily newspaper published in Monterey, California that serves Monterey County. In December, 2013, the Herald's parent company Media News Group merged to become ...

'' and the ''

Contra Costa Times The ''East Bay Times'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Walnut Creek, California, United States, owned by the Bay Area News Group (BANG), a subsidiary of Media News Group, that serves Contra Costa and Alameda counties, in the East Bay ...

''. The ''Palo Alto Daily News'', along with other papers, was included in the Mercury News' 'bundle,' to be sold as one entity.

, which already owned several area papers, agreed to acquire ''The Mercury News'', ''Contra Costa Times'', ''Monterey County Herald'' and the '' St. Paul Pioneer Press'' of Minnesota for $1 billion, with $263 million of that coming from 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 ...

, owner of the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...

''. The two deals — the sale of Knight Ridder to McClatchy, and McClatchy's sale to MediaNews — closed in August 2006. However, a lawsuit filed by San Francisco real estate developer Clint Reilly challenged the sale on anti-trust grounds. The suit was settled with Hearst and MediaNews agreeing not to work together on national advertising or distribution. In January 2007, Dajani was replaced by Carole Leigh Hutton, former editor and publisher of the

Detroit Free Press The ''Detroit Free Press'' is the largest daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, US. The Sunday edition is titled the ''Sunday Free Press''. It is sometimes referred to as the Freep (reflected in the paper's web address, www.freep.com). It primari ...

when it was owned by Knight Ridder. When Knight Ridder sold the Free Press to

Gannett Gannett Co., Inc. () is an American mass media holding company headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.Palo Alto Daily Post ''The Daily Post'' is a free newspaper in Palo Alto, California, founded in 2008 by the ''Palo Alto Daily News's'' founders, Dave Price and Jim Pavelich, who had sold that paper to new owners three years earlier. ''The Post'' is published Monday- ...

. In June 2008, the Daily News laid off five newsroom workers and eliminated its Monday edition in Palo Alto and its Tuesday edition in San Mateo, Redwood City and Burlingame. Those three cities had lost their Monday edition two years earlier. In August 2008, it came to light that the Daily News had hired a company in India to manage writing, copy-editing and design of a weekly real-estate product. In April 2009, the Daily News dropped its Sunday edition and editions for San Mateo, Burlingame and Redwood City.http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/departments/ad_circ/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003961319

References

External links

Palo Alto Daily News Official Website

* ttp://paloaltodailynews.com/kr-announce.html Knight Ridder buys Daily News
Daily News publishers ride into sunset

Daily News turns 10, bloopers recalled

Knight Ridder Launches New Free Daily Newspaper in East Bay
{{DEFAULTSORT:Daily News (Palo Alto), The MediaNews Group publications Newspapers published in the San Francisco Bay Area Free daily newspapers Publications established in 1995 1995 establishments in California Weekly newspapers published in California