Last December, New York’s Daily News created quite a stir — and made a spectacle of itself — when it ran a cover headline that advised that “God isn’t fixing this.” The “this” was a reference to gun violence. The “God” portion refereed to a call among GOP presidential candidates for prayers for the victims of the San Bernardino massacre.
Today, America’s “picture newspaper” is back with a cover that demonstrates not only the paper’s over-the-top yellow journalistic style but that its editors (the same ones who mocked prayers) have evidently found religion:
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
Front pages are for news, not opinion, but the Daily News is so hard up for readers that its publishers will apparently doing anything (presumably including dropping their pants) to attract attention. Audit numbers shows its circulation in a nosedive:
In the 12 months ended in March, total circulation has fallen by a staggering 40.7 percent, to 312,736, according to the Alliance for Audited Media.
Daily print circulation is off 40.2 percent under [former Editor-in-Chief Colin] Myler, from 400,131 in March 2012 to a mere 239,183 as of March 31 — likely the steepest circulation dive in the tabloid’s 96-year history.
Digital circulation, which had been growing for a time under Myler’s watch, accomplished the near-impossible — it fell 66 percent in the year ended March 31, to 73,553.
This is not the first time “New York’s Hometown Paper” has crossed the line in attacking Donald Trump. When Sarah Palin endorsed the GOP front-runner, the News ran this cover:
Before the New Hampshire primary, this was the cover:
After New Hampshire, the Daily News called Trump a clown and his supporters “mindless zombies:”
The front page of a newspaper is the equivalent of the packaging of a consumer product. It tells the consumer what he can expect to find inside. With these front covers reveal is that consumers looking for news should shop elsewhere.
Cross-posted at The Lid
