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This article is about the present-day newspaper. For other newspapers, see Los Angeles Daily News (19th century) and Illustrated Daily News.

The front page of The Van Nuys News published on January 22, 1915.

The Los Angeles Daily News is the second-largest-circulating paid daily newspaper of Los Angeles, California, after the unrelated Los Angeles Times, and the flagship newspaper of the Southern California News Group, a subsidiary of the Colorado-based MediaNews Group.

The offices of the Daily News are in Chatsworth, and much of the paper’s reporting is targeted toward readers in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles. Its stories tend to focus on issues involving local San Fernando Valley businesses, education, and crime.

History

Van Nuys News (1911-1981)

The Daily News began publication in Van Nuys as the Van Nuys Call on October 13, 1911.[2][3] E.R. Elkins founded the weekly newspaper,[4] and sold it after six weeks to Frank M. Keffer, a reporter from Pittsburgh,[5] who renamed it to the Van Nuys News.[6] In 1920, Walter Mendenhall became a co-owner.[7] In 1922, the paper expanded to a twice weekly.[2]

In 1926, Keffer was elected president of the Southern California Editorial Association.[8] In 1927, the News had 799 paying subscribers.[9] In 1932, Keffer sold his stake to William Colfax Markham and his children.[10] In the 1940s, the paper began producing its front page on green colored paper to set itself apart from the competition.[2]

In 1953, the paper was renamed the Van Nuys News and Valley Green Sheet.[3] During this period, the paper was delivered for free to readers in 14 zoned editions in the San Fernando Valley.[11] The News expanded to three days a week in 1954, and four days in 1959.[2] A few years later the paper expanded coverage to the Conejo, Simi and Santa Clarita valleys.[2]

In December 1960, Keffer died.[12] In August 1961, Walter Mendenhall died.[13] In September 1961, Markham died.[14] The paper was inherited by his children and the other owner’s son Ferdinand Mendenhall, who in 1970 was elected president of the California Newspaper Publishers Association.[15]

In 1973, the Tribune Company acquired the News from the Markham and Mendenhall families. At that time, the paper had a circulation of 276,000.[16] The sale price was $25 million.[2] In 1976, the green front page was dropped. In 1979, the News expanded to seven days a week.[2]

Los Angeles Daily News (1981-Present)

In 1981, the paper stopped its free distribution and was renamed to the Los Angeles Daily News.[2][3] Later that year, former owner Ferdinand Mendenhall died.[17] A few years later, federal regulators forced Tribune Co. to sell the Daily News as a condition of its acquisition of KTLA. The winning bid went to Jack Kent Cooke for $176 million.[18] At that time Cooke owned the Washington Redskins and the Chrysler Building.[2]

In 1987, the Daily News relocated to a 132,000-square-foot building.[2] In 1990, a new printing plant was opened in Valencia.[2] When the Los Angeles Herald Examiner went out of business November 2, 1989, it left the Daily News as the second-biggest paper in the city behind the Los Angeles Times.[19] In April 1997, Cooke died.[20] That December, his estate sold the Daily News to MediaNews Group, at that time headed by William Dean Singleton.[21]

The paper was consolidated with other Southern California titles into a subsidiary called the Los Angeles Newspaper Group,[19] which later became the Southern California News Group. All papers in the group are local editions of the Daily News.[22]

Similarly titled earlier newspapers

The Daily News bears no relation to an earlier historic Los Angeles Daily News (1923–1954), a morning newspaper based in Downtown Los Angeles (originally the Illustrated Daily News) that ceased publication on December 18, 1954.

An even earlier newspaper called the Los Angeles Daily News was printed beginning in 1869 and continuing for a number of years after.[23][24]

Political endorsements

The Daily News endorsed Barack Obama for president in 2008,[25] but then endorsed his opponent Mitt Romney in 2012.[26]

See also

References

  1. ^ “Total Circ for US Newspapers”. Alliance for Audited Media. September 2014. Retrieved June 11, 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k “A Valley institution”. Los Angeles Daily News. March 20, 2006. Archived from the original on July 10, 2025. Retrieved March 29, 2026.
  3. ^ a b c Pitt, Dale (2000). Los Angeles A to Z. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. p. 109. ISBN 978-0-520-20530-7. OCLC 248510988.
  4. ^ “Personal Paragraphs”. The Van Nuys News and Valley Green Sheet. May 11, 1917. p. 7.
  5. ^ “Another Councilman Resigns”. The Ligonier Echo. Ligonier, Pennsylvania. November 22, 1911. p. 1.
  6. ^ “New Name — New Management”. The Van Nuys News and Valley Green Sheet. November 24, 1911. p. 1.
  7. ^ “Walter Mendenhall Buys Into A California Paper”. Weekly Democrat-Forum and Maryville Tribune. Maryville, Missouri. September 16, 1920. p. 2.
  8. ^ “Van Nuys Man Heads Editors | F.M. Keffer, News Publisher, Elected President”. The Los Angeles Times. January 17, 1926. p. 17.
  9. ^ “To Our 799 New Subscribers”. The Van Nuys News and Valley Green Sheet. July 12, 1927. p. 1.
  10. ^ “Papers Figure In Two Deals | Interest in Van Nuys “News” Bought by Kansans”. The Los Angeles Times. September 2, 1932. p. 6.
  11. ^ Kaye, Ron. “Who Better to Kill a Newspaper Than a Journalistic Mortician: The Ed Moss Story”. Ron Kaye (blog). Archived from the original on January 19, 2016. Retrieved June 23, 2015.
  12. ^ “Pioneer Publisher dies at 85”. Pasadena Independent. December 30, 1960. p. 5.
  13. ^ “Mendenhall, Dean of News To Get Rites”. Los Angeles Evening Citizen News. August 3, 1961. p. 12.
  14. ^ “Dr. Markham, Publisher in Van Nuys, Dies”. The Los Angeles Times. September 8, 1961. p. 78.
  15. ^ “Van Nuys Man New CNPA President”. The Ripon Record. p. 10.
  16. ^ “‘The News’ joins Tribune Company | Pioneer Valley Publication Affiliates With Leading Metropolitan Group”. The Van Nuys News. December 14, 1973. p. 1.
  17. ^ “L.A. Daily News executive Ferdinand Mendenhall dies”. Chicago Tribune. United Press International. February 16, 1981. p. 55.
  18. ^ Rosenstiel, Thomas B. (December 11, 1985). “Jack Kent Cooke Buys The Daily News for $176 million”. The Los Angeles Times. p. 1.
  19. ^ a b Roberts, Gene; Kunkel, Thomas; Layton, Charles, eds. (2001). Leaving Readers Behind: The Age of Corporate Newspapering. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press. ISBN 1610752325.
  20. ^ Weinstein, Henry (April 7, 1997). “Jack Kent Cooke, Media, Sports Impresario, Dies”. The Los Angeles Times. p. 1.
  21. ^ White, Michael (December 5, 1997). “MediaNews buys L.A. Daily News”. Santa Barbara News-Press. Associated Press. p. 28.
  22. ^ Roderick, Kevin (April 1, 2013). “Al Martinez pens final column for changing Daily News”. LA Observed. Retrieved June 23, 2015.
  23. ^ “Los Angeles daily news”. Los Angeles Public Library L2PAC Catalog.
  24. ^ “Old Relics Unearthed | Corner Stone of the Jewish Synagogue Removed and Opened”. Los Angeles Herald. February 29, 1896. p. 6. Retrieved March 29, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  25. ^ “Barack Obama for president”. Los Angeles Daily News. Archived from the original on June 28, 2011. Retrieved June 23, 2015.
  26. ^ “Los Angeles News Group Endorsement: Mitt Romney for president”. Los Angeles Daily News. Archived from the original on April 20, 2013. Retrieved June 23, 2015.