One of its last stories was a leak, likely by the "Deep Throat" whistleblower Mark Felt, that E. Howard Hunt's safe contained a map of the Watergate complex.

However, the newspaper closed before the Watergate scandal received national attention and Felt delivered the rest of his information to the rival Washington Post.

People who gained recognition while working at the Daily News include Judy Mann, who was part of an early Vietnam War protest sit-in at Columbia University.

Others who gained recognition from the News included Bill Beall, who won a Pulitzer for "Faith and Confidence", a photo of a child and a police officer;[6] and Samuel A. Stafford - Heywood Broun Award winner (and Pulitzer runner-up for investigative reporting) famous for stories that unmasked the Surplus Food program abuses which led to the modern SNAP and WIC programs; horse racing analyst Andrew Beyer, and Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) President as well as Columbia University Maria Moors Cabot gold medal Winner John Thomas O'Rourke.

When it finally closed its doors in 1972, the huge letters outside the printing presses and offices were removed and given to the reporters and others as keepsakes, some of which were turned into coffee tables.