Workers at four New York City newspapers (this later increases to nine) go on strike for 114 days.

The 1962–1963 New York City newspaper strike was a massive shutdown that brought nearly all of the city’s major papers to a standstill for more than three months, starting in December 1962. At the heart of the dispute were conflicts between newspaper management and the printers’ union over wages, job security, and new printing technology. Management wanted more flexibility to modernize production, while unions feared automation would eliminate skilled jobs. When negotiations collapsed, printers walked out, and other unions honored the picket lines, essentially freezing the city’s press overnight.

The impact was huge. New York at the time was one of the world’s most influential media centers, and suddenly millions of people were without their daily papers, including The New York Times, the Daily News, and the New York Post. Many smaller papers and alternative publications tried to fill the gap, but nothing matched the scale of the major dailies. Politicians, sports teams, and local businesses all struggled to get information out, and national news outlets scrambled to keep people updated. Even television and radio felt the shock—without newspapers feeding them leads, coverage became thinner and sometimes less reliable.

Economically, the strike caused heavy losses for publishers and big advertisers, while newsstand owners and freelancers saw their income evaporate. When the strike finally ended in March 1963, management and unions reached an agreement that included wage increases but also gave publishers more room to adopt new technology. The deal didn’t solve every labor issue, but it marked a turning point: automation gradually transformed newspaper production in the following years, and the strike ended up highlighting just how dependent the city—and the country—was on traditional print journalism at the time.