I grew up in a New York Post household long before it became associated inexorably with the color red. The Post was THE afternoon paper during my youth, which meant it actually had the West Coast box scores and updated standings that all but the very last-delivered editions of the Daily News had, and on winter mornings often those editions wouldn’t even make it to our newsstands. And for the most part it was politically middle-of-the-road–not that I read the front page all that much.
Rupert Murdoch’s purchase and the crazy year of 1977 that followed it–the Summer of Sam, the trade of Tom Seaver and the Yankees’ first world championship in 15 years–changed all that. He replaced the inner headline fonts with the same thick, bold, all-caps screaming look and splashes of red that he used in his London tabloids, morphing the once-staid mouthpiece of the matronly Dorothy Schiff into a much more aggressive package. He even added a morning edition that somehow managed to squeeze in all but the very latest West Coast scores. That was more than enough for me to become an addict to it, long before I became employed by the same parent corporation.
So when I saw the familiar yellow newspaper rack with The Post’s logo crop up in the center of the 20th Century FOX lot concurrent with the publishing of a satellite-produced edition in Los Angeles that was ostensibly battling the New York Times for ex pat readers like moi, I became its most consistent client. On the many mornings when I’d arrive just as the sun was rising to compile the prior night’s ratings highlights I’d frequently run into the delivery guy who would happily had me a copy from his stash, never asking me for any money since he thought I was important.
I wax so nostalgic about this in the pious hope that you might somehow forgive how excited I was to see this self-congratulatory story from the paper’s Alexandra Steigrad yesterday:
The New York Post is going Hollywood. The nation’s most popular tabloid will launch The California Post early next year — delivering its brand of fearless, common-sense journalism and legendary headlines at a critical juncture for the Golden State. The new publication will be headquartered in Los Angeles and feature a robust staff of editors, reporters and photographers dedicated to covering news, entertainment, politics, culture, sports and business — all with a distinctly California perspective.
The California Post will be supported by the team in New York providing national and international news. The content will appear in a daily print edition and will have its own dedicated homepage for Californians with stories being published across multiple other platforms, including video, audio and social media.
Veteran journalist Nick Papps will take the reins as editor in chief, bringing nearly two decades of experience. He has helped drive editorial and commercial success at multiple publications, including as News Corp Australia’s West Coast correspondent for nearly three years when Papps was based in LA.
Translated: Papps was the apropos surname for a glorified papparazzi, as the appetite for celebrity gossip is even greater in Sydney than it is in New York. And with TMZ now firmly ensconched under the News Corporation corporate umbrella, this will provide an immediate springboard and natural alliance for the California Post to tap into that world.
And if the sample back page provided in Steigrad’s article is any indication of what’s ahead. it sure looks like those late box scores are going to be included–something that even those restored by the LOS ANGELES TIMES by “popular demand” still can’t seem to get right. It seems that working past 3 p.m. local time is a skill set no longer necessary by the few remaining journalists that Patrick Soon-Chiong employs. Many actually left voluntarily when the paper took a political turn to the right last fall by refusing to endorse Kamala Harris for the presidency. They also gave a side hustle to CNN’s right-wing prime time provacateur Scott Jennings as a “contributor” to their editorial board.
Yet despite those moves the POST’s editorial dropped a companion story later in the day to supplement Steigrad’s write-up that revealed more of their actual intent to go after this market that goes way beyond box scores and Hollywood innuendo:
Great news for the left coast: California. As the Golden State’s decline accelerates, the New York Post Media Group is launching The California Post to expose the causes of the rot. It’ll report on news, entertainment, politics, culture, sports and business from a California perspective — and call out the lunatic policies dragging the state down, sending businesses and residents fleeing. For the first time ever, California is shrinking compared to the nation overall: from 12.1% of the US population in 2010 to just 11.9% a decade later, costing it a seat in Congress — and it’s looking at losing up to five more seats after the 2030 Census. Since just 2020, more than 500 companies ditched the state or shrank operations while expanding elsewhere, per the Center for Jobs & the Economy.
Why? Life in California has worsened, thanks mostly to unchecked lefty pols. Taxes are off the charts (the top income-tax rate, 13.3%, is the nation’s highest), yet poverty is everywhere. Regulatory rules and litigation block development, leading to sky-high housing costs. Last year, the California Policy Center found the state had America’s highest unemployment, lowest income growth and highest poverty rate. It highlighted Cali’s ranking by Chief Executive magazine as the worst state in America to do business — for the 10th year in a row. Notable, too, are the huge costs of the left’s green agenda. Meanwhile, armies of the homeless rule the streets; crime runs rampant. Lefty pols like LA Mayor Karen Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom actually defend criminal illegal migrants. The recent LA riots, and the fires months before, highlight the duo’s feckless incompetence.
But media there just can’t (or won’t) manage to call out the pols responsible. Count on The California Post to fill that role.
Wow. We haven’t seen words like that in a paper intended for California consumption since Stephen Miller was writing letters to the editor of the Santa Monica High School SAMOHI (yes, that’s what they name tabloids on the this coast). In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Miller may have ghost-written, or at least signed off, on that diatribe above.
And per a tease from Matthew Belloni’s newsletter last night, it would appear the braintrust in New York were triggered by the events of this year and what they perceive is a simmering cauldron of discontent from those that don’t self-define as liberal apologists. I would caution that if they look around they might not see all that many–not that they could immediately tell from the slew of face masks that are still being defiantly donned by a disproportionate number of “overly cautious”. Such a casual glance might also make them make a note that a Spanish language edition–at bare minimum an insert–might be a good idea if they really want to make a dent.
But much like the money-losing dinosaur that the OG version back in NYC masquerades in as it approaches its 225th year of publication, this is clearly not being launched as a purely for-profit venture. Though at least Steigrad attempted to back up her version of bravado with some actual data that would seem to support there might be a hidden market somewhere in this time zone:
It is home to the second-largest concentration of Post readers, with 3.5 million monthly unique visitors to its web properties — and 7.3 million across the state. The Post brand, influence and reach with The Post Digital Network, which includes NYPost.com, PageSix.com and Decider.com, attracted 90 million unique visitors in June. About 90% of Post digital readers already live outside the New York media market.
I’ll confess that I’m a contributor to all of those statistics and unashamed about it. I do happen to intensely dislike Mayor Bass, but it’s for more personal reasons related to her conduct as my former Congresswoman that allowed a “McMansion” to be shoehorned into the lot next door to my one-time ideally located corner lot house that helped ignite the circumstances that ultimately contributed to my life unraveling. But besides that, I’m not necessarily going to don a red hat or scream blindly about a green agenda–optics aside.
There may very well be a market for a tabloid in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Its design was meant for a subway straphanger, and with LA’s Metro rapidly expanding and BART now established enough to be in its own state of decay–not to mention the price of gas–may indeed open up enough potential for some of those scarce print copies to find homes. If you must, you can scroll on your phone–rest assured I do both,
Most of all, the small print that indicates that the CALIFORNIA POST price will be $2–not the $4 that the New York import currently carries–has got me truly jazzed. It would be consistent with the strategy that the New York edition employed when it aggressively went after that morning market when it first started, and would also make it more competitive with the likes of the Epoch Times– perhaps the only daily publication on West Coast newsstands that currently carries viewpoints akin to those that the POST board rattled off above.
It’s reportedly being unveiled early next year, which if I can read between the lines would suggest some time around the start of spring training and the ramping up to the midterms. Which means that at least I’ll be able to get my daily dose of New York-oriented headlines straight through to their mayoral election, which is more than enough political rhetoric to satisfy me, from a safe distance. I’ll do my very best to ignore the local iteration when the new edition debuts.
All I ask is that those box scores remain and that they’re somewhat fresher than what I’m getting from the TIMES. It’s what I wanted then, and it’s what I want now. I hope you’ll believe that.
Until next time…