Australian veteran journalist Nick Papps will be the inaugural editor-in-chief of News Corp’s latest US newspaper: a Californian edition of right-wing tabloid the New York Post.
Plans for the new paper were revealed on Tuesday, with a story in the New York Post proclaiming “Los Angeles, here we come”.
“Los Angeles and California surely need a daily dose of The Post as an antidote to the jaundiced, jaded journalism that has sadly proliferated,” said Robert Thomson, CEO of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, the paper’s parent company.
“We are at a pivotal moment for the city and the state, and there is no doubt that The Post will play a crucial role in engaging and enlightening readers, who are starved of serious reporting and puckish wit.”
The California Post, News Corp’s biggest US daily newspaper launch in nearly 15 years, will have its headquarters in LA and begin publishing in early 2026.
New York Post editor-in-chief Keith Poole will have oversight of the expansion while Papps – currently Sunday editor of the Herald Sun in Melbourne – will be the new Post’s editor-in-chief. Papps is a News Corp veteran and was LA correspondent from 2004-06.
It seems California Post readers can expect the same type of stories and sensationalist headlines as those found in the New York Post, which was founded in 1801 by Alexander Hamilton and describes itself as “the nation’s most popular tabloid”.
Sean Giancola, CEO and publisher of the New York Post Media Group, said it would offer a familiar mix of “common-sense journalism”, celebrity and entertainment news and sports reporting across multiple platforms, including a daily print edition.
An editorial on The New York Post goes further, stating it will “call out the lunatic policies dragging the state down, sending businesses and residents fleeing”, and claiming that “life in California has worsened, thanks mostly to unchecked lefty pols”.
California news industry experts say the tabloid will seek to capitalise on the struggles of the incumbent Los Angeles Times, which has shed subscribers and staff.
The New York Post says it already has 3.5 million monthly unique visitors based in LA and 7.3 million across California.
One source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters that Murdoch recognised California as a market opportunity and gave the venture his blessing.
“You don’t launch a newspaper without getting feedback from one of the best guys in the business,” the source said.
The last daily newspaper launched in the US by News Corp, owner of the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal, was the Daily, a digital newspaper for Apple’s then-new iPad tablet, in 2011. It folded the following year.
– with Reuters
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