Newsday is a daily tabloid-size Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper that primarily serves Long Island and the New York City borough of Queens, although it is sold throughout the New York City metropolitan area.^[1] As of fall 2007, Newsdays weekday circulation of 387,000 made it 10th-highest in the United States, and the highest for a suburban newspaper.^[2] The newspaper headquarters is in Melville, New York, on Long Island.

History

Founded by Alicia Patterson, with backing from her husband, Harry Guggenheim, the paper was first published on September 3, 1940 from Hempstead. After Patterson's death in 1963, Guggenheim became publisher and editor, and in 1971, he sold the paper to the Times Mirror Co., owner of the Los Angeles Times. Newsday launched a separate Queens edition in 1977, followed by a New York City edition. In June 2000, Times Mirror merged with the Tribune Company, partnering Newsday with the New York City television station WPIX (Channel 11), also owned by Tribune.

In April 2008, it was reported that News Corporation CEO Rupert Murdoch was looking to purchase Newsday for $580 million.^[3] This was soon followed by a matching bid from New York Daily News owner Mort Zuckerman^[4] and a $680 million bid from Cablevision.^[5] However, by May 2008, Murdoch withdrew his bid, leaving Cablevision close to a deal. ^[6]

On May 12, 2008, Newsday reported that it would be purchased by Cablevision in a deal worth $650m. ^[7]

The sale was completed on July 29, 2008.^[8]

New York Newsday

A separate edition of the newspaper, New York Newsday, was established in 1985, and mostly shut down in 1995, while Newsday's New York City edition is distibuted primarily in Queens.

Editorial style

Despite having a tabloid format, Newsday is not known for being sensationalistic, as are other local daily tabloids, such as the New York Daily News and the New York Post.^[9][10]

In 2004, the alternative weekly newspaper, Long Island Press wrote that Newsday has used its clout to influence local politics in Nassau and Suffolk Counties.^[11]

Bill Moyers briefly served as publisher.^[12] During the tenure of publisher Robert M. Johnson in the 1980s, Newsday made a major push into New York City. The paper's roster of newspaper columnists and critics included Jimmy Breslin, Barbara Garson, Murray Kempton, Gail Collins, Pete Hamill, Sydney Schanberg, Jim Dwyer, sportswriter Mike Lupica, music critic Tim Page, and television critic Marvin Kitman. Newsday featured both the advice columnists Ann Landers and Dear Abby for several years. Its features section has included television reporters Verne Gay and Diane Werts, reality TV columnist Frank Lovece, and film critics Gene Seymour, John Anderson and Jan Stuart.

Newsday's use of graphics has sometimes attracted national attention, particularly of the circa-1970 work of such longtime in-house illustrators as Gary Viskupic, Tony D'Adamo, and Ned Levine. Pulitzer Prize winner Walt Handelsman's editorial political cartoons animation are a nationally syndicated feature of Newsday. In the 1980s, a new design director, Robert Eisner, guided the transition into digital design and color printing.

Newsday created and sponsored a "Long Island at the Crossroads" advisory board in 1978, to recommend regional goals, supervise local government, and to liaison with state and Federal officials.^[13][14][15] It lasted approximately a decade.

Circulation

In 2008, Newsday was ranked 10th in terms of newspaper circulation in the United States.^[2]

A circulation scandal in 2004 revealed that the paper's daily and Sunday circulation had been inflated by 16.9% and 14.5%, respectively, in the auditing period September 30, 2002 to September 30, 2003.^[16] The Audit Bureau of Circulation adjusted average weekday circulation to 481,816 from 579,599; average Saturday circulation to 392,649 from 416,830; and average Sunday circulation to 574,081 from 671,820, and instituted twice-yearly audits.^[16]

In popular culture

• On the 1996-2005 CBS sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, the fictional character Ray Barone (played by Ray Romano) is employed by New York Newsday as a sportswriter.
• The lead female character in the "Crocodile" Dundee movies worked at Newsday.
• The episode "The Homer They Fall" of The Simpsons 8th season quotes Newsday in referencing Boxing as "The cruelest sport".

Footnotes

References

• Newsday.com
• amNY.com

es:Newsday fr:Newsday ro:Newsday