RIP Michael O'Neill, former NYDN editor

He died in his sleep at 89:

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/daily-news-chief-michael-o-neill-dies-article-1.1087193

He was editor of the Daily News during the Son of Sam killings and the 1977 blackout, as well as guy in charge for this one:

 

RIP. It is a little jarring to see that a blue-collar tabloid editor's memorial service will be at a yacht club. Of course, I have a 1974 Almanac and the DN's circ is listed as just below 2.1 million daily and just below 3 million on Sunday. (Current circ: 579,636, 660,918.) So I suppose they paid him yacht money to run something that huge. By his last year as editor, though, the paper was in such bad shape financially that Tribune Co. put it up for sale. It didn't happen, but the apparent buyer was Dean Singleton's cut-and-burn mentor, Joe Allbritton. A decade later, they dumped the paper on Robert Maxwell, who apparently fell overboard from his yacht and died.

 

Maxwell slipped down to a waiting submarine, with Elvis, Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix.

 

R.I.P., MR. O'NEILL... AND THANK YOU.

i swear i was thinking about mike just the other day when someone asked my about my early years in newspaperdom... i was lucky enough out as a copyboy in nov, '78 and worked primariy night shifts 'on the bench' unil being promoted to 'junior reporterr in july '80, when the short-lived 'tonight' edition was born...

at any rate, i only got to know o'neill a couple of months before being promoted. i was replacing the copyboy who was his usual driver at 7 a.m. i'd take one of the dn's newest cars from their manhattan garage, drive out tohis westhcester,and drive his 14-year-old to her high school and go on to drive mike and his wife into manhattan. everyone was quite friendly and put me right at ease. and when my two weeks of chaufferring gig was ending. on or final drive me. o'neill asked me, 'so, shockey, what was your last name again. i'm pretty sure your one of five copyboys/girls i just approved for promotions next month...'

certainly onr of the best days of my life... i know the dn circulation nosedived during the o'neill years but it was mostly a case of bad timing for him -- his reign began just as the biz was beginning to die. but he was considered by the staff to be a terrific newspaperman and class act.

obviously i's greatly biased, but you'll never get any other idea from me. only the best of thoughts and remembrances from me...

a sad day in my tiny world...