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Daily Planet

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Daily Planet

Newspaper


"Straight from the Source"
Field Print media
Industry Mass communication
Management Oliver Queen (Substantial shareholder, LuthorCorp)
Tess Mercer (CEO and Managing Director,LuthorCorp, Mercer Media Group)
Pauline Kahn (Editor-in-Chief)
Location Metropolis
Status Operational
The Daily Planet is one of Metropolis's oldest and most respected newspapers. [1] Its headquarters are located at 1000 Broadway in Metropolis, Kansas [2], next door to LuthorCorp Plaza [3] and across the street from the Ace of Clubs[4] . As of 2005, Pauline Kahn was the Editor-in-Chief. [5] Its slogan is "Straight from the Source." [6]

In 2007, Lex Luthor revealed that he had purchased the Daily Planet [7]. He quickly started to exert editorial control over the paper. He hand-picked Lois Lane to write a flattering exposé about him, but when she instead threatened to detail his numerous crimes, he killed the story. [8] He monitors email and data communication of his employees. [9] He also fired several staff members, including Chloe Sullivan after she lied to him about a key that Lionel had left for her. [10]

Since the disappearance of Lex, Tess Mercer has taken over ownership of the Planet. Tess then asked Oliver if he wanted to invest his own money into LuthorCorp in a merger deal with his own company, Queen Industries. He agreed and they announced the deal at a LuthorCorp board meeting to the dismay of Lex who used Winslow Schott to plant a bomb to kill Oliver and Tess. Tess wasn't present but Oliver suffered some minor injuries before getting revenge by killing Lex with a bomb built by Toyman.

It is unclear if the Daily Planet's reputation will survive Lex Luthor and Tess Mercer's ownership.

The Daily Planet building's most distinguishing and famous feature is the enormous globe that sits on top of the building. The Planet accepts four high school students as summer interns from the state.[11]

Contents

[edit] Physical Appearance

The basement of the Daily Planet, primarily where interns work.

The Daily Planet is based in a tall skyscraper building. The top reporters at the paper work on higher level floors in the building; new reporters literally start in the basement of the building and work their way up.

Top reporters, columnists and editors like Grant Gabriel and Linda Lake also get their own offices, while junior reporters and photographers work in exposed desks in an open plan layout. Owner and publisher Tess Mercer also has a large private office at the Planet.

Currently, Lois and Clark work in the open plan "basement" at the Daily Planet (Chloe used to work here as well, before she was fired). There is a supply closet near the basement. A large staircase in the center of the building goes all the way from the basement to the roof (Gemini). There is also a bank of elevators that connects the floors in the building.

Some floors appear to be dedicated to specific departments. For example, there is an entire floor dedicated to political correspondence, where political correspondents like Brennan worked (Noir).

There is an enormous walk-in freezer in the building, presumably servicing the Daily Planet kitchen. Lois and Jimmy were locked in the freezer by Lex Luthor's assistant, Gina (Descent ).
Metropolis as seen from the Daily Planet roof.

[edit] Known Staff

Current Staff

  • Tess Mercer is the publisher of the Daily Planet. She works in Lex Luthor's former office.
  • Lois Lane has been a reporter at the Daily Planet for over a year.
    Lois joined the Planet staff in 2007.
    She was hired away from the Metropolis Inquisitor by Grant Gabriel (Kara). Shortly after he hired her, Grant had Lois reporting on exclusive assignments all over the country.[12] When she and Grant started dating, Lois decided that the relationship was worth the risk of damaging her career. She and Grant began a relationship while he was her manager, but Lois never learned his true identity and apparently is not aware of his death (Blue). Lois put a great deal of focus on the goings-on of Lex Luthor, and Lex used a variety of methods to monitor, control or thwart her investigations. In addition to the exposé,[13] she reported on Lex's near-death experience in Detroit, a story which he also likely prevented from being published (Fracture). She also helped Jimmy Olsen investigate the death of Patricia Swann (Veritas) and focused on Lex Luthor's frequent trips to the Arctic Circle (Arctic). The first onscreen indication of Lois publishing a story came in the summer of 2008. She and Clark Kent investigated a bus explosion right outside the Daily Planet building and her story was a front-page headline (Plastique).
  • Clark Kent accepted Lois' suggestion to apply to the Daily Planet, and is now a reporter at the desk opposite Lois (Odyssey). His first assignment was an obituary for Tommy Walker (Plastique).
  • Perry White is a reporter at the Daily Planet who wrote an article on Lionel Luthor's conviction in September of 2004 (Gone). He had previously worked at the Daily Planet where he was nominated for multiple Pulitzer prizes, before being forced out for working on a story about Lionel Luthor (Perry).
  • Randall Brady is the City Editor for the Daily Planet following the death of Grant Gabriel at a steak house. In an alternate timeline, he promoted Lois Lane after the story she wrote on Clark Kent's alien heritage and time as the Red-Blue Blur. He was infected by the zombie virus, and his current status is unknown.

Alumni

Chloe receives a by-line in the paper in Subterranean.
  • Chloe Sullivan was an intern at the Planet twice during her high school years. Her sophomore year, she was picked after writing an essay on her experience of being kidnapped. [14] She helped a reporter during her summer intern. [15] Her junior year, Lionel Luthor arranged for her to have a column, called "Sullivan's Travels", after she agreed to investigate Clark Kent. He later withdrew the favor when he believed she betrayed him. He also blacklisted her name, hindering her efforts to realize her dream to write for the paper. Chloe attempted to write under the name "Lois Lane," but her editor was killed before he published any of her articles. As a college student, Chloe was hired by Pauline Kahn as an intern at the Daily Planet. [16] She began writing obituaries and classified advertisements and answering the 24-hour news hotline. She then wrote small general-interest articles. She had at least four major stories published [17] before she was fired by Lex (Descent).
  • Andrea Rojas worked at the Planet as a secretary, before quitting to become the masked superhero Angel of Vengeance (Vengeance).
  • Dinah Lance was a conservative talk show host who worked at the Daily Planet. She is also the alter-ego of the superheroine Black Canary. It is unclear if she quit her job to join Oliver Queen's team of superheroes, or if she still works at the Planet (Siren).

Deceased Staff

  • Max Taylor edited Chloe's column before being killed by his hypnotized assistant (Delete).
  • Brennan was a reporter for the Daily Planet. Unfortunately, he was shot and killed by hired killers trying to block the story from being published (Noir).
  • Jimmy Olsen worked as an on-location photographer. He quit his job in March 2009 after recovering from his marriage incident in the hospital, but before long his marriage to Chloe Sullivan completely dissolved as a result of his frustration. He left a profile about Davis Bloome on Tess Mercer's desk before leaving the Daily Planet for good. He was eventually killed by Davis Bloome. (Turbulence)
  • John Corben was brought into the Daily Planet as a replacement for Clark Kent but was run over by a truck and turned into a psychotic cyborg. He was basically deactivated by Clark Kent. (Metallo).

[edit] In the Comics

The Daily Planet team
In the comics, the Daily Planet will be the place of business for:

It also deals with many tribulations of ownership, and passes through the hands of Franklin Stern, Lex Luthor (as in Season 7 of Smallville), and (as in current comics) Bruce Wayne.

[edit] Appearances

[edit] Quotes

Lex: You're no longer writing my exposé.
Lois: Nuh-uh. You'll have to take that up with my boss.
Lex: I am your boss. Merry Christmas, Lois. I just bought the Daily Planet.
Gemini, Season 7

[edit] Notes

  • There is no "The" in "Daily Planet". In the newspaper itself, proper usage is either the Daily Planet or the Planet, but never The Daily Planet or The Planet. [18] The logo above the front door says "Daily Planet". Despite this, the globe at the top of the building clearly says "The Daily Planet" [19] and the closed captions for episodes show THE DAILY PLANET or THE PLANET italicized all together. [20]
  • Nine members of the staff have been killed while employed by the Daily Planet. Three of these were killed by Davis Bloome.
  • The Marine Building in Vancouver stands in as the Daily Planet building in Smallville. It has 22 floors and at 97.8m, was the tallest skyscraper in the city until 1939. [21]

[edit] References

  1. ↑ In Season 7's Kara, Grant Gabriel tells Lois that, "This is the Daily Planet, read in virtually ever country across the globe. We have no rival."
  2. ↑ The Daily Planet building's address is given as 1000 Broadway in Season 6's Noir
  3. ↑ Clark establishes this in Insurgence. Additionally, when Lex pushed Lionel out of the window of his LuthorCorp office, Jimmy Olsen was able to take a picture from inside of the Daily Planet
  4. ↑ In Arctic, Jimmy Olsen meets Lois Lane at the Club and remarks that it is across the street from the Daily Planet
  5. ↑ Pauline was Editor-in-Chief during Thirst, when Chloe applied to work at the Planet by writing a story about a sorority of vampires.
  6. ↑ "Straight from the Source" is painted on the side of Daily Planet trucks in Nicodemus.
  7. ↑ Gemini
  8. ↑ Gemini
  9. ↑ Hero
  10. ↑ Descent
  11. ↑ Chloe states this as she is preparing to interview for one of the positions in Crush.
  12. ↑ She was covering a story in New York City (Fierce), and in Los Angeles reporting on celebrity DUIs (Cure).
  13. ↑ Lois' exposé can be read here.
  14. ↑ Season 1, Episode 20: Obscura
  15. ↑ Smallville #2 What I Did On My Summer Vacation
  16. ↑ Season 5, Episode 5: Thirst
  17. ↑ She detailed Mr. Lyon's kidnapping ring (Exposed), the death of Graham Garrett, which was on the front page (Fade), Jed McNally's illegal migrant workers (Subterranean), and the Weather Girls (Fierce)
  18. ↑ In the Season 1 Pilot, the Daily Planet frontpage article about "QUEEN INDUSTRIES CEO MISSING, PRESUMED DEAD" is shown under a Daily Planet logo without the article "The". [1] In Season 8's Identity, Jimmy Olsen's article about the Good Samaritan who is "Faster than a Speeding Bullet" is shown under the Daily Planet logo on the newspaper's frontpage, without the article "The" in front of it.
  19. ↑ This can be clearly seen in Instinct.
  20. ↑ This can be seen in many episodes, including Season 8's Identity
  21. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_Building

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