Daily Bugle - History

History

The Daily Bugle was founded in 1898 and has been published daily ever since. The Daily Bugle is printed in tabloid format like its rival The Daily Globe. The editor and publisher of the Bugle, J. Jonah Jameson, began his journalistic career as a reporter for the Bugle while still in high school. Jameson purchased the then-floundering Bugle with inheritance funds, from his recently deceased father-in-law and turned the paper into a popular success. Other magazines published from time-to-time include the revived Now magazine and the now-defunct Woman magazine, edited by Carol Danvers.

J. Jonah Jameson, Inc. purchased the Goodman Building on 39th Street and Second Avenue in 1936 and moved its entire editorial and publishing facilities there. Now called the Daily Bugle Building, the office complex is forty-six stories tall, and is capped by the Daily Bugle logo in 30-foot (9.1 m) letters on the roof. There are loading docks in the rear of the building, reached by a back alley. Three floors are devoted to the editorial office of the Bugle and two sub-basement levels to the printing presses, while the rest of the floors are rented. (A panel in issue 105 of The Amazing Spider-Man showed the Bugle building located near a street sign at the corner of Madison Avenue and a street in the East Fifties (the second digit was not shown). This suggests that the building may have been relocated at some point.)

The newspaper is noted for its anti-superhero slant, especially concerning Spider-Man, whom the paper constantly smears as a part of its editorial policy. However, the Editor-in-Chief, "Robbie" Robertson, the only subordinate to Jameson who is not intimidated by him, has worked to moderate it. More positively, the newspaper has also published important exposes of political corruption and organized crime in the city, and also takes a strong stance in favor of mutant rights, which has led to its being targeted by various criminals and hate groups.

Due to declining circulation, Jameson has conceded to Robertson's objections and has created a special feature section of the paper called The Pulse, which focuses on superheroes. In addition, the paper also intermittently ran a glossy magazine called Now Magazine.

Soon after the team's formation, the New Avengers decided to strike a deal with Jameson regarding exclusive content in exchange for removing the strong anti-Spider-Man sentiment from the newspaper, to which Jameson agreed. Merely one day later, Jameson broke the spirit (though not the letter) of his agreement with Iron Man, using the headline "a wanted murderer (Wolverine), an alleged ex-member of a terrorist organization (Spider-Woman) and a convicted heroin-dealer (Luke Cage) are just some of the new recruits set to bury the once good name of the Avengers," but refraining from attacking Spider-Man. This prompted Jessica Jones to sell the first pictures of her newborn baby to one of the Bugle's competitors instead.

In the first issue of Runaways Vol. 2, Victor Mancha states in an exchange about Spider-Man that "The only people who think he's a criminal are Fox News and the Daily Bugle. And the Bugle is, like, the least respected newspaper in New York City." The paper's major named competitors are the Daily Globe, which implicitly takes a more balanced look at the superhero, Front Line, run by EIC Ben Urich and Sally Floyd, and The Alternative. After Peter Parker revealed he is Spider-Man and the Bugle planned to sue him for fraud, the paper itself was put on the defensive with front page accusations from The Globe (with information secretly supplied by Bugle reporter Betty Brant) of libeling the superhero.

The adventures of the staff of the newspaper beyond Peter Parker have been depicted in two series, Daily Bugle and The Pulse.