It was created to compete with the New York Daily News which was then a sensationalist tabloid and the most widely circulated newspaper in the United States.

Payne's circulation building stunts ranged from reviving the sensational Hall-Mills murder case to sponsoring and being a passenger on the Old Glory, transatlantic flying record attempt, in which he was killed.

[1] Early on, several bright young writers and photographic journalists joined the Daily Mirror, such as Ring Lardner, Jr., Hy Peskin and the political commentator Drew Pearson.

The gossip columnist Walter Winchell and managing editor Emile Gauvreau were both hired away from the New York Evening Graphic, the city's third sensational tabloid.

For example, the Mirror and Graphic both had devoted substantial resources to the exploitation of scandal with repeated stories on such events as the divorce trial of real estate tycoon Edward West "Daddy" Browning who at age 51 had married 16-year-old Frances Belle "Peaches" Heenan, as well as constant coverage of the decade's celebrities like Rudolph Valentino, Babe Ruth and Charles A. Lindbergh.