Readers Write: Golden Age of NYC newspapers is gone

The Island Now

April 24 marked the seventh anniversary for the passing of George E. McDonald, who led the New York Allied Printing Trades Council. It closed the books on the glory days of New York City newspapers.

In the 1960s, New York City was blessed with over 12 daily newspapers sold at thousands of neighborhood newsstands. I still remember many of Long Island’s own Newsday competitors from decades ago, such as the Long Island Star-Journal and Long Island Press, based in Queens, along with the short-lived Suffolk Sun. The Bronx Home News suspended publication in 1948. The Brooklyn Eagle ceased publication in 1957.

The 1962 newspaper strike lasted for 114 days before ending on March 31, 1963.

Prior to that New Yorkers had numerous newspapers. These included the New York Post, New York Daily News, New York Journal American, New York World Telegram & Sun, New York Mirror, The New York Times, New York Herald Tribune, Long Island Star Journal, Long Island Press and Staten Island Advance.

It was an era when a majority of citizens received their news from newspapers, as opposed to television news. These broadcasts would be primarily local news, sports and weather, seldom more than 30 minutes.

Technology and budgets were not readily available to send reporters out for remote coverage of national or international stories. Readers could select from morning, midday and late afternoon editions, available at thousands of newsstands. It was common to see many of several million commuters while riding the NYC Transit subway or Long Island Rail Road reading a paper to and from work. There were thousands of newsstands all over NYC. Today there are fewer newspapers and only several hundred newsstands left. The profit margin for individual newspaper sales adds up to pennies. Newsstand owners need additional revenues to survive. They provide newspapers and other products many New Yorkers depend upon on a daily basis.

As a result of the strike, the Daily Mirror ended publication in 1963. Even with the remnants of three papers that combined into one, the World Journal Tribune had the best reporters and features from the old New York Herald Tribune, World Telegram and Sun along with the Journal American but could not survive and folded in 1967.

Today the Post, Daily News and Times continue to fight for survival. They face competition from other daily newspapers such as Newsday, Staten Island Advance, USA Today and the Wall Street Journal. There are also freebies such as AM Metro New York.

More people turn to all news radio, national network news such as ABC, CBS, NBC along with their local affiliates, NY1 (New York City), News 12 (Long Island), FOX-5, WOR-9, WPIX-11, WLNY 10/55, PBS, along with cable news stations such as CNBC, CNN, FOX, BBC and the Internet for late breaking news, which can sometimes become stale by the time it reaches print the next day. A growing population of new immigrants support their own newspapers, radio and television stations.

I still enjoy holding a hard copy of a daily or weekly newspaper in my hands to read decades later.

Larry Penner

Great Neck

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