New York Post
The
New York Post is one of the oldest
newspapers published in the
United States. It is owned by Australian-born billionaire
Rupert Murdoch's
News Corporation and is the 12th largest newspaper (in terms of circulation) in the United States. Its editorial offices are located at 1211 Avenue of the Americas, in Manhattan.
The paper was founded by
Alexander Hamilton and a group of investors for $10,000 in the autumn of
1801 as the
New-York Evening Post, a
broadsheet quite unlike today's
tabloid. Hamilton's co-investors included other members of the
Federalist Party such as
John Jay,
Oliver Wolcott and
Rufus King who were dismayed by the election of
Thomas Jefferson and the rise in popularity of the
Democratic-Republican Party. The meeting at which Hamilton first recruited investors for the new paper took place in the country weekend villa that is now
Gracie Mansion. Hamilton chose for his first editor
William Coleman, but the most famous 19th-century
Evening Post editor was
William Cullen Bryant, a strong
Abolitionist. In 1881
Henry Villard took control of the
Evening Post, which in 1897 passed to the management of his son,
Oswald Garrison Villard, a founding member of both the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the
American Civil Liberties Union. In 1933 the
Post briefly changed to a conservative tabloid format.
Dorothy Schiff purchased the paper in 1939 and her second editor (and husband)
Ted Thackrey turned it into a pure
tabloid format in 1942. In
1976 the
Post was bought by Rupert Murdoch.
While in the past the newspaper had been a long-established politically
liberal stalwart, in recent years the paper has adopted a
conservative slant, reflecting Murdoch's politics. Murdoch imported the sensationlist "
tabloid journalism" style of his British papers such as the
The Sun - typified by the Post's famous
April 15,
1983 headline:
HEADLESS BODY IN TOPLESS BAR and even rerunning
The Sun's famous
GOTCHA headline, this time in regards to the murder of
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi instead of the
Falklands War.
Due to the institution of federal regulations limiting cross media ownership, Murdoch was forced to sell the paper in 1988 to
Peter S. Kalikow, a
real estate magnate. When Kalikow declared
bankruptcy in 1993, the paper was temporarily managed by Steven Hoffenberg, a financier who pled guilty to securities
fraud; and, for two weeks, by
Abe Hirschfeld, who made his fortune building parking garages. The
Post was repurchased in
1993 by Murdoch's
News Corporation, which was granted a permanent waiver by the
Federal Communications Commission from the cross-ownership rules that had forced him to sell the paper five years earlier. Under Murdoch's direction, the paper has effected a
populist conservative editorial viewpoint.
The paper is well known for its
sports section, which has been praised for its comprehensiveness; it begins on the back page, and among other coverage, contains columns about sports in the media by
Phil Mushnick.
The
New York Post is also well known for its
gossip columnists
Liz Smith and Cindy Adams. The best known gossip section is 'Page Six', edited by Richard Johnson. It is reported that "Page Six" is the first thing many celebrities turn to each morning. Feb. 2006 saw the debut of
Page Six: the magazine, edited by
Jared Paul Stern, which was distributed free inside the paper.
In recent decades, the daily circulation of the
Post slumped from 700,000 in the late
1960s to approximately 418,000. A resurgence in the last five years boosted circulation 49% to 686,207, achieved partly by lowering the price from 50 to 25 cents. Three of every four
Post readers read another paper as well. The
Post sold 753,116 column inches of display ads in 2004, only about 45% as much as was run in the
New York Daily News.
News Corp. does not release figures, but outsiders estimate the newspaper has been losing $15-30 million a year, and some speculate Murdoch operates the paper at a loss because of the political influence the newspaper affords him. Industry experts suggest that the Post cannot become profitable as long as the competing
Daily News survives, and he may be trying to force that paper to fold or sell out. [
1]
Murdoch's
Post has been criticized from the beginning for its lurid headlines, sensationalism, and blatant advocacy. In
1980, the
Columbia Journalism Review asserted that "the
New York Post is no longer merely a journalistic problem. It is a social problem - a force for evil."
[Columbia Journalism Review, volume 18 number 5 (Jan/Feb 1980), page 22-23.]Critics feel that the
Post allows its editorial positions to shape its story selection and news coverage. But as the
Post executive
editor, Steven D. Cuozzo, sees it, it was the
Post that "broke the
elitist media stranglehold on the national agenda."
Post supporters cite a series of recent
scandals at the
broadsheet New York Times as proof that this problem is scarcely unique to the
Post.
According to a survey conducted by
Pace University in 2004, the
New York Post was rated the least credible major news outlet in New York, and the only news outlet to receive more responses calling it "not credible" than credible (44% not credible to 39% credible). [
2]
There have been numerous controversies surrounding the Post, often due to their use of language that some feel is overtly racist or ethnically insensitive. Most recently, for example, several Asian-American advocacy groups protested the use of the headline "Wok This Way" for an article about President Bush's meeting with the president of the People's Republic China. [
3]
* The
New York Post, established 1801, describes itself as the nation's oldest continuously published daily newspaper.
The Hartford Courant, which describes itself as the nation's oldest continuously published newspaper, was founded in 1764 as a semi-weekly paper; it didn't begin publishing daily until 1836.
The New Hampshire Gazette, which has trademarked its claim of being
The Nation's Oldest Newspaper, was founded in 1756.
* When Rupert Murdoch once asked the chairman of
Bloomingdale's why he wasn't buying
ads in the
Post, he was allegedly told "because, dear Rupert, your readers are my shoplifters." [
4] (This anecdote has also been told about other publications and the Bloomingdale's chairman, Marvin Traub, has denied ever saying this about the "Post.")
* The
Public Enemy song "
A Letter to the New York Post" is a complaint about what they believed to be negative and inaccurate coverage the group received from the paper.
*In the
Spider-Man films, the
Daily Bugle appears to be based on the
Post. The
Post explicitly takes the place of the Bugle in the
Daredevil film.
*The
New York Post is a common target of jokes on the television show
Law & Order, often seen at the end of an episode with a ridiculous headline relating to the episode's case, occasionally alongside a copy of the
New York Times, which has a more reasonable headline. Copies of the fictional
New York Ledger, which appears very similar to the
Post, have also appeared on
Law & Order.
* In the spy farce film
Top Secret!,
[Spy Hard] one of the villain's henchmen is introduced as "Klaus . . . a moron, who knows only what he reads in the New York Post." Actor, Eddie Deezen,
[Rancor Guard Who Gets Spit On] a large man with a blank, rather unintelligent looking expression on his face, is holding a copy of the New York Post as this is said.
*The
New New York Post has occasionally appeared in
Futurama.
*In October
1984, a parody called "The Post New York Post" was published, ostensibly the issue from the day after the start of
World War III. The front-page headline was "KABOOM!" The subhead read, "Michael Jackson, 80 million others dead."
*
Fox News*
Rupert Murdoch*
News Corporation*
Media of New York City*
Phil Mushnick*
New York Post Online official site
The Post's New York : Celebrating 200 Years of New York City As Seen Through the Pages and Pictures of the New York Post, 2001
