The New York Daily News is no longer printed in the Big Apple.
As of Wednesday, New York’s “hometown paper” is doing all of its design and layout in Chicago. The New York Post first reported the change.
Daily News reporters and editors are still based in Manhattan, and they’re reportedly not happy with the way the Windy City is treating their paper.
Staffers are complaining about numerous aspects of the layout, including headlines that are too short (leaving white space) and entire pages of text with no photos or illustrations.
The design of the paper’s famous covers has also changed recently.
An Archie Bunker theme for the front page of today’s New York Daily News pic.twitter.com/q3ky1xACe1
— Michael Li 李之樸 (@mcpli) June 15, 2018
The changes were instituted by the Daily News‘ parent company Tronc, which is looking to consolidate editing and design tasks for all of the papers under its umbrella at its Chicago headquarters.
Tronc purchased the Daily News for $1 last year. Former editor-in-chief Jim Rich returned to the paper in January after a brief stint at HuffPost. But his attempts to right the ship haven’t been successful.
The Daily News loses about $30 million annually, and its weekday print circulation (which used to be nearly one million readers) is now only about 200,000 strong. Digital traffic has also fallen nearly 30 percent.
The paper’s content has been criticized in recent days.
A column earlier this week about Donald Trump Jr.’s romance with Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle ostensibly focused on how Guilfoyle can’t possibly be neutral while dating the president’s son.
But writer Linda Stasi got in trouble for her suggestion that Guilfoyle, who is Puerto Rican, would “be better off picking grapes.”
The line was eventually removed from the story, but there was no editor’s note explaining the controversy.
Tronc and the Daily News did not respond to requests for comment.
All this controversy may be helping the News‘ crosstown rival, however.
Some people on Twitter said they would begrudgingly read the Post since it was still printed in the city. So get ready for more media gossip on Page Six!
Crappy left wing rag! The Post is slightly less crappy now purely based on location.
— 🐝🦋MLK🦋🐝 (@missksa) June 15, 2018
