Tough Baby

The lowbrow, lusty New York Daily News, which sells more copies (2,350,000) than any other U.S. daily, was 29 years old last week--and feeling a little sensitive about praise from an unexpected quarter. In an article in Harper's called "Great Newspapers, If Any" of the U.S. press, Journalist Gerald W. Johnson had ranked the News high--as a business enterprise, at least.*

The News hastened to assure its readers that it was not accustomed to keeping company with such "quality folks"--and that it wasn't planning to try. Added the News: "This newspaper is run ... for the readers, and we don't give a hoot in hell whether it pleases other newspapers or editors or makes them sick . . . We're for the general public, its likes and dislikes, its peeves and aspirations, in so far as we're able to divine the same. We've been out with the gang exactly 29 years today, and we ain't snuggling up to the highbrows now."

* Among others on Johnson's list: the New York Times and Herald Tribune, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Louisville Courier-Journal.

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