Community Corner
Daily News Alumni Share Memories After Mass Layoffs Announced
"I am literally crying for the paper I loved," a former Daily News photographer wrote, "and all those wonderful people."
NEW YORK CITY — A Pulitzer Prize-winning editor, a reporter who regularly broke stories on city corruption and inmate abuse, a photographer who grabbed his camera and ran toward Ground Zero and many others lost their jobs on Monday.
Half the editorial staff at the New York Daily News were given notice when tronc, the corporate media conglomerate that bought the tabloid in September, announced there would be mass layoffs at the paper and a refocus on "breaking news."
As award-winning journalists packed up their desks and left the office, reporters from across the city took to social media to share memories of the historic paper that offered many of them — this reporter included — their first bylines in print.
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The first time my name appeared in the Daily News was the proudest day of my life. It was a weather story and I went to pick up the late edition around 1am. Today is a sad day for NYC and a lot of talented, hard-working people. pic.twitter.com/zXN95Ae8qL
— Peter Kadushin (@peterkadushin) July 23, 2018
I was wet behind the ears when I got a job stringing for the Daily News back in 2006. I was mostly in the Bronx with the legendary Bob Kappstatter, chasing murders and writing the odd human interest story. I was 26 and new to the city and it was one of the best years of my life.
— Andrew J. Hawkins (@andyjayhawk) July 23, 2018
Will be forever indebted to the @NYDailyNews for publishing one of my first features as a reporter... a story that, with its grit and eccentricity, only made sense in the Daily News: https://t.co/ZIjNBTXB8B
— John Surico (@JohnSurico) July 23, 2018
Proudest moment of my career was seeing my byline in the Daily News. I was 15, and eager to soak up everything the paper’s staff had to offer. Today’s news is devastating. https://t.co/RSPvCa2aNN pic.twitter.com/AnMk5YbELK
— Myles Miller (@MylesMill) July 23, 2018
You'd bang on a door in some God-forsaken corner of the city and say you were with the Daily News, and out came someone full of life and tears and joy and passion, so grateful that someone cared. And the next day a million people would care about it too. Who cares for them now?
— Adam Lisberg (@adamlisberg) July 23, 2018
Several other reporters from the New York Post — the Daily News' most direct and arguably fiercest competitor — were quick to note they would not be celebrating.
https://t.co/51XyzJYUxV None of the reporters at the Post are happy about this. So many, including myself have worked at both papers over the years. You want your team to win on the field, you don't want the other team to have a heart attack or suffer a crippling injury.
— Keith J. Kelly (@media_ink) July 23, 2018
I spent nearly a decade in the middle of the battle between the Post and the Daily News in New York. As many others have said, the rivalry made all of us better. Thinking of my friends at the Daily News today on what is a dark day for journalism in New York City.
— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) July 23, 2018
I grew up channeling the lyrics of Steely Dan: “I just read the Daily News and swear by every word.” The last 16 years it’s been my privilege to do daily battle with talented rivals who are also friends. Today, those folks are in my thoughts. When one of us bleeds, we all bleed. pic.twitter.com/041HzY5Uki
— Mike Vaccaro (@MikeVacc) July 23, 2018
Photographer Debra L. Rothenberg took to Facebook to share her memories of selling her car so she could move her life to New York City and possibly, one day, work for the Daily News.
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Rothenberg — who ended up photographing a "sort of unknown" artist named Jennifer Lopez, Bruce Springsteen and the firefighters who rushed toward Ground Zero on 9/11 — recalled the day a Daily News editor named Mike told her she had a job.
"'Close your mouth kid, you're hearing me right,'" he told the young photographer. She added, "He sent me to get my press pass and boy, was I happy."
Rothenberg then thanked the photographers who got her started who lost their jobs on Monday, she said.
"I am literally crying for the paper I loved," Rothenberg wrote, "and all those wonderful people."
Todd, Marcus, and Andrew, forever my brothers. "Too Tough To Die." #nydailynews #pressphotographer
A post shared by Marc A. Hermann (@mhermannphoto) on Jul 23, 2018 at 9:18am PDT
Header Photo Caption: Daily News employees pose for a picture as they gather at a local bar after many of them were informed of their termination on July 23, 2018 in New York City. Photo courtesy of Spencer Platt/Getty Images
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