New York Post

New York Post

August 27, 2015 front page of the New York Post
Type Daily newspaper
Format Tabloid
Owner(s) News Corp
Publisher Jesse Angelo
Editor Col Allan
Founded 1801
Language English
Headquarters 1211 Avenue of the Americas
New York, New York 10036
United States
Circulation 500,521 Daily[1] (as of March 2013)
ISSN 1090-3321
Website www.nypost.com

The New York Post is an American daily newspaper, primarily distributed in New York City and its surrounding area. It is the 13th-oldest and seventh-most-widely circulated newspaper in the United States.[2] Established in 1801 by federalist and Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, it became a respected broadsheet in the 19th century, under the name New York Evening Post. Since 1993, the Post has been owned by News Corporation and its successor, News Corp, which had owned it previously from 1976 to 1988. Its editorial offices are located at 1211 Avenue of the Americas, in New York City, New York.

The modern version of the paper is written in tabloid format.

History

The New York Post, established on November 16, 1801 as the New-York Evening Post, describes itself as the nation's oldest continuously published daily newspaper. The Hartford Courant, believed to be the oldest continuously published newspaper, was founded in 1764 as a semi-weekly paper; it did not 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, also as a weekly. Moreover, since the 1890s it has been published only for weekends.

19th century

Alexander Hamilton

The Post was founded by Alexander Hamilton with about US$10,000 from a group of investors in the autumn of 1801 as the New-York Evening Post,[3] a broadsheet. Hamilton's co-investors included other New York members of the Federalist Party, such as Robert Troup and Oliver Wolcott,[4] who were dismayed by the election of Thomas Jefferson as U.S. President and the rise in popularity of the Democratic-Republican Party.[5] The meeting at which Hamilton first recruited investors for the new paper took place in then-country weekend villa that is now Gracie Mansion.[6] Hamilton chose William Coleman as his first editor.[5]

The most famous 19th-century New-York Evening Post editor was the poet and abolitionist William Cullen Bryant.[7] So well respected was the New-York Evening Post under Bryant's editorship, it received praise from the English philosopher John Stuart Mill, in 1864.[8]

In the summer of 1829, Bryant invited William Leggett, the Locofoco Democrat, to write for the paper. There, in addition to literary and drama reviews, Leggett began to write political editorials. Leggett's classical liberal philosophy entailed a fierce opposition to central banking, a support for voluntary labor unions, and a dedication to laissez-faire economics. He was a member of the Equal Rights Party. Leggett became a co-owner and editor at the Post in 1831, eventually working as sole editor of the newspaper while Bryant traveled in Europe in 1834 through 1835.

Another co-owner of the paper was John Bigelow. Born in Malden-on-Hudson, New York, John Bigelow, Sr. graduated in 1835 from Union College, where he was a member of the Sigma Phi Society and the Philomathean Society, and was admitted to the bar in 1838. From 1849 to 1861, he was one of the editors and co-owners of the New York Evening Post.

In 1881 Henry Villard took control of the New-York Evening Post, as well as The Nation, which became the Post's weekly edition. With this acquisition, the paper was managed by the triumvirate of Carl Schurz, Horace White and Edwin L. Godkin.[9] When Schurz left the paper in 1883, Godkin became editor-in-chief.[10] White became editor-in-chief in 1899, and remained in that role until his retirement in 1903.[11][12]

In 1897, both publications passed to the management of Villard's son, Oswald Garrison Villard,[13] a founding member of both the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People[14] and the American Civil Liberties Union.[15]

20th century

Villard sold the paper in 1918, after widespread allegations of pro-German sympathies during World War I hurt its circulation. In 1948 The Bronx Home News merged with it.[16]

The new owner was Thomas Lamont, a senior partner in the Wall Street firm of J.P. Morgan & Co.. Unable to stem the paper's financial losses, he sold it to a consortium of 34 financial and reform political leaders, headed by Edwin Francis Gay, dean of the Harvard Business School, whose members included Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Conservative Cyrus H. K. Curtis[17]—publisher of the Ladies Home Journal—purchased the New-York Evening Post in 1924[18] and briefly turned it into a non-sensational tabloid in 1933.[18]

In 1934, J. David Stern purchased the paper, changed its name to the New York Post,[18] and restored its broadsheet size and liberal perspective.[19]

In 1939, Dorothy Schiff purchased the paper. Her husband, George Backer, was named editor and publisher.[20] Her second editor (and third husband) Ted Thackrey became co-publisher and co-editor with Schiff in 1942.[21] Together, they recast the newspaper into its current tabloid format.[22] In 1949, James Wechsler became editor of the paper, running both the news and the editorial pages. In 1961, he turned over the news section to Paul Sann and remained as editorial-page editor until 1980.

Under Schiff's tenure the Post was devoted to liberalism, supporting trade unions and social welfare, and featured some of the most-popular columnists of the time, such as Joseph Cookman, Drew Pearson, Eleanor Roosevelt, Max Lerner, Murray Kempton, Pete Hamill, and Eric Sevareid, in addition to theatre critic Richard Watts, Jr. and Broadway columnist Earl Wilson.

Murdoch ownership

In 1976, Rupert Murdoch bought the Post for US$30.5 million.[23] The Post at this point was the only surviving afternoon daily in New York City and its circulation under Schiff had grown by two-thirds, particularly after the failure of the competing World Journal Tribune. However, the rising cost of operating an afternoon daily in a city with worsening daytime traffic congestion, combined with mounting competition from expanded local radio and TV news cut into the Post's profitability, though it made money from 1949 until Schiff's final year of ownership, when it lost $500,000. (The paper has lost money ever since).[5] Under Murdoch's watch, the Post veered sharply to the right editorially, in accordance with Murdoch's views.

In late October 1995, the Post announced plans to change its Monday through Saturday publication and start a Sunday edition,[24] which it last published briefly in 1989.[25] On April 14, 1996, the Post delivered its new Sunday edition at the cost of 50 cents per paper by keeping its size to 120 pages.[26] The amount, significantly less than Sunday editions from competitors The Daily News and The New York Times, was part of the Post's efforts "to find a niche in the nation's most competitive newspaper market".[26]

In December 2012, Murdoch announced that Jesse Angelo had been appointed Publisher.[27]

Style

One of the paper's most famous headlines, from the April 15, 1983 edition.

Murdoch imported the tabloid journalism style of many of his Australian and British newspapers, such as The Sun, which was the highest selling daily newspaper in the UK for a long time. This style was typified by the Post's famous headlines such as "Headless body in topless bar" (shown on the right, written by Vincent Musetto who died in June 2015). In its 35th-anniversary edition, New York Magazine listed this as one of the greatest headlines. It also has five other Post headlines in its "Greatest Tabloid Headlines" list.[28]

Because of the institution of federal regulations limiting media cross-ownership after Murdoch's purchase of WNEW-TV (now WNYW-TV) and four other stations from Metromedia to launch the Fox Broadcasting Company, Murdoch was forced to sell the paper for $37.6 million in 1988 to Peter S. Kalikow, a real-estate magnate with no news experience.[29] When Kalikow declared bankruptcy in 1993,[29] the paper was temporarily managed by Steven Hoffenberg,[29] a financier who later pleaded guilty to securities fraud;[30] and, for two weeks, by Abe Hirschfeld,[31] who made his fortune building parking garages. After a staff revolt against the Hoffenberg-Hirschfeld partnership—which included publication of an issue whose front page featured the iconic masthead photo of founder Alexander Hamilton with a single tear drop running down his cheek[32][33]—The Post was again purchased in 1993 by Murdoch's News Corporation. This came about after numerous political officials, including Democratic governor of New York Mario Cuomo, persuaded the Federal Communications Commission to grant Murdoch a permanent waiver from the cross-ownership rules that had forced him to sell the paper five years earlier.[34] Without that FCC ruling, the paper would have shut down. Under Murdoch's renewed direction, the paper continued its conservative editorial viewpoint.

Criticism

The Post has been criticized since the beginning of Murdoch's ownership for sensationalism, blatant advocacy, and conservative bias. In 1980, the Columbia Journalism Review stated "the New York Post is no longer merely a journalistic problem. It is a social problem – a force for evil."[35]

Perhaps the most serious allegation against the Post is that it is willing to contort its news coverage to suit Murdoch's business needs, in particular that the paper has avoided reporting anything that is unflattering to the government of the People's Republic of China, where Murdoch has invested heavily in satellite television.[36]

Critics say that the Post allows its editorial positions to shape its story selection and news coverage. Post executive editor Steven D. Cuozzo has responded that the Post "broke the elitist media stranglehold on the national agenda."

According to a survey conducted by Pace University in 2004, the 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).[37]

The Public Enemy song "A Letter to the New York Post" from their album Apocalypse '91...The Enemy Strikes Black is a complaint about what they believed to be negative and inaccurate coverage blacks received from the paper.

The Post's coverage of the murder of Hasidic landlord Menachem Stark prompted outrage from Jewish communal leaders and public figures.[38]

Controversies

There have been numerous controversies surrounding the Post:

The Post and the Daily News often take potshots at each other's work and accuracy, particularly in their respective gossip-page items.

In certain editions of the February 14, 2007, newspaper, an article referring to then-Senator Hillary Clinton's support base for her 2008 presidential run referred to then-Senator Barack Obama as "Osama";[67] the paper realized its error and corrected it for the later editions and the website.[68] The Post noted the error and apologized in the February 15, 2007, edition.[69] Earlier, on January 20, 2007, the Post received some criticism[70] for running a potentially misleading headline, "'Osama' Mud Flies at Obama",[71] for a story that discussed rumors that Obama had been raised as a Muslim and concealed it.

Operations

Website

In 1996, the Post launched an Internet version of the paper nypost.com. The original site included color photos and sections broken down into News, Sports, Editorial, Gossip, Entertainment and Business. It also had an archive for the past seven days. Since then, it has been redesigned a number of times, with the latest incarnation launched on September 6, 2009. In 2005 the website implemented a registration requirement but removed it in July 2006.

The current website also features continually updated breaking news; entertainment, business, and sports blogs; links to Page Six Magazine; photo and video galleries; original Post videos; user-submitted photos and comments; and streaming video for live events.

Printing plant

Highlights

"Page Six" redirects here. For the Atari computer magazine, see Page 6.

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 columnist Cindy Adams.

The best-known gossip section is "Page Six". It was created by James Brady[72] and currently edited by Emily Smith (although it no longer actually appears on page 6 of the tabloid). February 2006 saw the debut of Page Six Magazine, distributed free inside the paper. In September 2007, it started to be distributed weekly in the Sunday edition of the paper. In January 2009, publication of Page Six Magazine was cut to four times a year.

Sales

The daily circulation of the Post decreased in the final years of the Schiff era from 700,000 in the late 1960s to approximately 418,000 by the time she sold the paper to Murdoch in 1976. Under Murdoch, the Post launched a morning edition to compete directly with the rival tabloid Daily News in 1978—prompting the Daily News to retaliate with a PM edition called Daily News Tonight. But the PM edition suffered the same problems with worsening daytime traffic that the afternoon Post experienced and the Daily News ultimately folded Tonight in 1981. By that time, circulation of the all-day Post soared to a peak of 962,000, the bulk of the increase attributed to its morning edition (It set a single-day record of 1.1 million on August 11, 1977 with the news of the arrest the night before of David Berkowitz, the infamous "Son of Sam" serial killer who terrorized New York for much of that summer). But the Post lost so much money that Murdoch decided to shut down the Post's PM edition in 1982, turning the Post into a morning-only daily.

The Post and the Daily News have been locked in a bitter circulation war ever since. A resurgence during the first decade of the 21st century saw Post circulation rise to 724,748 by April 2007,[1] achieved partly by lowering the price from 50 cents to 25 cents. In October 2006, the Post for the first time surpassed the Daily News in circulation—only to see the Daily News overtake its rival a few months later.[73] As of April 2010, the Post's daily circulation is 525,004, just 10,000 behind the Daily News.[74]

Yet the Post has remained unprofitable since Murdoch first purchased it from Dorothy Schiff in 1976—and was on the brink of folding when Murdoch bought it back in 1993, with at least one media report in 2012 indicating that the Post loses up to $70 million a year.[75] One commentator has suggested that the Post cannot become profitable as long as the competing Daily News survives, and that Murdoch may be trying to force the Daily News to fold or sell out.[76]

Recent headquarters

The 1906 Old New York Evening Post Building is a designated landmark. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.[77]

From 1926 to 1970, the newspaper's main office was at 75 West Street in the New York Evening Post Building. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.[77] In 1967, Schiff bought 210 South Street, the former headquarters of the New York Journal American, which closed a year earlier. The building became an instantly recognizable symbol for the Post. In 1995, owner Rupert Murdoch relocated the Post's news and business offices to the News Corporation headquarters tower at 1211 Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue) in midtown Manhattan. The Post shares this building with Fox News Channel and The Wall Street Journal, both of which are also owned by Murdoch. The Post and the New York City edition of the Journal are printed at a state-of-the-art printing plant in the borough of The Bronx.

Cultural references

Vincent Musetto's 1983 headline inspired Peter Koper to write the 1995 American black comedy Headless Body in Topless Bar.[78]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "FAS-FAX Report: Circulation Averages for the Six Months Ended March 31, 2012". Arlington Heights, Ill.: Audit Bureau of Circulations. Retrieved May 21, 2012.
  2. ↑ Burrellesluce.com
  3. ↑ Allan Nevins, The Evening Post: Century of Journalism, Boni and Liveright, 1922, page 17.
  4. ↑ Nevins, page 14.
  5. 1 2 3 Emery & Emery, page 74.
  6. ↑ Nevins, pages 17–18.
  7. ↑ Emery & Emery, page 90.
  8. ↑ Nevins, page 341.
  9. ↑ Nevins, page 438.
  10. ↑ Nevins, page 458.
  11. ↑ "Horace White Dies," The New York Times, September 17, 1916.
  12. ↑ Nevins, pp. 440–441.
  13. ↑ Webster's Biographical Dictionary, G. & C. Miriam Co., 1964, page 1522.
  14. ↑ Christopher Robert Reed, The Chicago NAACP and the Rise of Black Professional Leadership, 1910–1966, Indiana University Press, 1997, page 10.
  15. ↑ Emery & Emery, page 257.
  16. ↑ "County Data for Bronx County, New York". LandsofNewYork.com. Retrieved February 13, 2014.
  17. ↑ "New York Newspapers and Editors". Retrieved June 7, 2007.
  18. 1 2 3 "ketupa.net media profiles: curtis". Retrieved June 7, 2007.
  19. ↑ Emery & Emery, page 292.
  20. ↑ Deborah G. Felder & Diana L. Rosen, Fifty Jewish Women Who Changed the World, Citadel Press, 2003, page 164.
  21. ↑ "Dolly's Goodbye". Time. January 31, 1949. Retrieved June 6, 2007.
  22. ↑ Emery & Emery, page 556.
  23. ↑ "News Corp: Historical Overview". The Hollywood Reporter. November 14, 2005. Archived from the original on December 8, 2006. Retrieved June 7, 2007.
  24. ↑ New York Post to Publish on Sundays, New York Times, October 24, 1995, retrieved December 8, 2013
  25. ↑ Post Plans Sunday Paper, New York Times, February 5, 1996, p. 6, retrieved December 8, 2013
  26. 1 2 The New York Post Starts Inexpensive Sunday Paper, Orlando Sentinel, April 14, 1996, p. A26, retrieved December 8, 2013
  27. ↑ http://www.newscorp.com/news/news_549.html
  28. ↑ "Greatest Tabloid Headlines". Nymag.com. March 31, 2003. Retrieved February 11, 2009.
  29. 1 2 3 Neil Hickey (January–February 2004). "Moment of Truth". Columbia Journalism Review. Archived from the original on April 23, 2007. Retrieved June 7, 2007.
  30. ↑ "ABS Credit Migrations" (PDF). Nomura Fixed Income Research. March 5, 2002. p. 20. Retrieved June 7, 2007.
  31. ↑ Bob Fenster, Duh! The Stupid History of the Human Race, McMeel, 2000, page 13.
  32. ↑ Glaberson, William (March 16, 1993). "Fight for New York Post Heats Up In Court, in Newsroom and in Prin". The New York Times. Retrieved March 22, 2009.
  33. ↑ "N.Y. Post slams its new owner". The Telegraph. Mar 16, 1993. p. 10. Retrieved 29 March 2015.
  34. ↑ Hickey, "Moment of Truth".
  35. ↑ Columbia Journalism Review, volume 18, number 5 (Jan/Feb 1980), pages 22–23.
  36. ↑ James Barron and Campbell Robertson (May 19, 2007). "Page Six, Staple of Gossip, Reports on Its Own Tale". The New York Times. Retrieved May 19, 2007.
  37. ↑ Jonathan Trichter (June 16, 2004). "Tabloids, Broadsheets, and Broadcast News" (PDF). Pace Poll Survey Research Study. Retrieved June 7, 2007.
  38. ↑ "Questions and Outrage Surround Menachem Stark's Brutal Murder –". Forward.com. January 5, 2014. Retrieved February 13, 2014.
  39. ↑ David, Shenk (October 20, 1997). "Every Picture Can Tell a Lie". Wired. Retrieved March 22, 2008.
  40. ↑ "Bush wins!". The Guardian (London). Retrieved July 5, 2008.
  41. ↑ David Nolan, "New York Post Blasted for running suicide shot on cover", Media Ethics, Texas State University-San Marcos, School of Journalism & Mass Communication. Accessed June 5, 2008.
  42. ↑ "From The 'If It Bleeds It Leads Department' — Death Jump Photo Ran Because That's What We Do", Plastic(.com). Accessed June 5, 2008.
  43. ↑ "Post Tabs Wrong Horse", thesmokinggun.com. Accessed June 5, 2008.
  44. ↑ Paul H.B. Shin (April 22, 2006). "Post's 'Wok' Head No Joke to Asians". New York Daily News. Archived from the original on March 8, 2007. Retrieved June 7, 2007.
  45. ↑ GEORGE RUSH; JOANNA RUSH; MOLLOY PATRICK; HUGUENIN CRISTINA; KINON (September 29, 2006). "JAY-Z HIP-HOPS ACROSS THE POND". Daily News. Retrieved March 25, 2015. ...New York Post editor in chief Col Allan fired gossip writer Sarah Polonsky yesterday, ...
  46. ↑ Kat Stoeffel, 09/02/11, The Observer, Gatecrasher Subject Threw Gatecrasher a Birthday Party! Are Reporter Freebies Back?, Retrieved March 25, 2015, "...Col Allan got wind of the situation, via Radar, he was reportedly “on the warpath,” and fired fellow Page Sixer Sarah Polonsky for similar “freebie-mongering” the same day..."
  47. ↑ "Powder Puff Spooks Keith", New York Post, September 27, 2006. Accessed June 5, 2008.
  48. ↑ Dumenco, Simon (July 23, 2007). "Call Me a Surrender Monkey, but I (Heart) the New York Post". Adage.com. Retrieved February 11, 2009.
  49. ↑ Roland S. Martin, Commentary: NY Post cartoon is racist and careless, CNN, February 18, 2009, Accessed February 19, 2009.
  50. ↑ "NY Post cartoon of dead chimpanzee stirs outrage". Associated Press. February 18, 2009. Archived from the original on Feb 21, 2009. Retrieved February 19, 2009.
  51. ↑ NY Post (February 19, 2009). "That Cartoon". New York Post. Retrieved February 2, 2009.
  52. ↑ Curtis Rush (December 4, 2012). "Furor over NY Post photo of doomed man". Thespec.com. Retrieved December 5, 2012.
  53. ↑ Mirkinson, Jack (April 16, 2013). "NY Post Criticized Over Coverage Of Boston Bombings". The Huffington Post. Retrieved April 16, 2013.
  54. ↑ Fung, Katherine; Jack Mirkinson (April 18, 2013). "New York Post's Boston 'Bag Men' Front Page Called 'A New Low,' 'Appalling'". The Huffington Post (April 18, 2013). Retrieved April 18, 2013.
  55. ↑ "New York Post hit with libel lawsuit over 'Bag Men' Boston bombings cover". The Guardian (London). June 6, 2013. Retrieved June 6, 2013.
  56. ↑ "Meet The Two Immigrant Runners Wrongly Fingered As "Possible Suspects" In The Boston Marathon Bombing". The Smoking Gun. April 18, 2013.
  57. ↑ "New York Post settles lawsuit over 'Bag Men' cover following Boston Marathon bombing". NY Daily News. October 2, 2014.
  58. ↑ Schwirtz, Michael; Turkewitz, Julie (January 4, 2014). "Charred Body of Kidnapped Man Is Found on Long Island". The New York Times.
  59. ↑ "Today's Front Pages | New York Post". Newseum. Archived from the original on December 7, 2013. Retrieved February 13, 2014.
  60. ↑ "New York Post Cover Angers Pols « CBS New York". Newyork.cbslocal.com. January 5, 2014. Retrieved February 13, 2014.
  61. ↑ "New York Post's Menachem Stark Cover". Business Insider. January 5, 2014. Retrieved February 13, 2014.
  62. ↑ "In Menachem Stark Slay, Where's the Humanity? – Forward Thinking – Forward.com". Blogs.forward.com. January 5, 2014. Retrieved February 13, 2014.
  63. ↑ "New York - A VIN Editorial: An Open Letter To The New York Post". VosIzNeias.com. Retrieved February 13, 2014.
  64. ↑ "Outrage Over New York Post Coverage of Tragic Death of Kidnapped Chasidic Jew | Jewish & Israel News". Algemeiner.com. January 5, 2014. Retrieved February 13, 2014.
  65. ↑ Brett LoGiurato (January 6, 2014). "Politicians Are Slamming The New York Post's Controversial Cover On A Murdered Jewish Landlord". Business Insider. Retrieved February 13, 2014.
  66. ↑ "Citywide, Brooklyn Pols Condemn NY Post Coverage Of Stark Murder". YouTube. January 5, 2014. Retrieved February 13, 2014.
  67. ↑ The Empire Zone (February 14, 2007). "Bill Snares Osama Guy". New York Times Blog. Retrieved June 7, 2007.
  68. ↑ Maggie Haberman (February 14, 2007). "Bill snares Obama guy". New York Post. Retrieved June 7, 2007.
  69. ↑ "CORRECTION", New York Post, February 15, 2007. Accessed June 5, 2008. "Due to an editing mistake, a small number of copies of yesterday's Post carried a headline referring to 'Osama' over a story about Sen. Barack Obama on Page 2. The Post regrets the error."
  70. ↑ "Presidential Candidate Barack Obama Educated At Radical Islamist School, Oh, Wait. No, That's Not True... But Let's Pretend He Was Anyway". Your New Reality. January 23, 2007. Retrieved June 7, 2007.
  71. ↑ Maggie Haberman (January 20, 2007). "'Osama' Mud Flies at Obama". New York Post. Retrieved June 7, 2007.
  72. ↑ "Obituaries in the news". Associated Press. January 27, 2009. Archived from the original on February 26, 2009. Retrieved January 28, 2009.
  73. ↑ Associated Press, "Newspaper circulation off 2.6%; some count Web readers", November 5, 2007. Accessed June 5, 2008.
  74. ↑ Audit Bureau of Circulation
  75. ↑ Michael Calderone (June 28, 2012). "Rupert Murdoch Suggests Wall Street Journal Won't Face Cuts In News Corp. Split". Huffington Post.
  76. ↑ Anthony Bianco (February 21, 2005). "Profitless Paper in Relentless Pursuit". Business Week. Retrieved June 7, 2007.
  77. 1 2 Staff (2010-07-09). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  78. ↑ Bowman, David (24 March 1996). "'Headless' is a Flick from Tabloid Heaven". Long Beach Press-Telegram. New York Times News Service.

Further reading

External links

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