Going to California
The New York Post is hitting the West Coast. The Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid known for its catchy headlines, gossipy celebrity coverage, in-depth sports reporting and right-leaning political hot takes is headed to California. The Post announced Monday that it will start up something called The California Post next year.
Keith Poole, the editor-in-chief of The New York Post, will also be in charge of the California version. Nick Papps, a longtime editor at the Murdoch-owned News Corp Australia operation, will be the editor-in-chief of The California Post. In a statement, Poole said, “California is the most populous state in the country, and is the epicenter of entertainment, the A.I. revolution and advanced manufacturing — not to mention a sports powerhouse. Yet many stories are not being told, and many viewpoints are not being represented.”
The move comes just in time for the new California paper to wade into what is expected to be a heavily contested gubernatorial election in November 2026.
Meanwhile, The New York Times’ Katie Robertson wrote, “The Post’s move into new territory comes at a time when California’s media landscape has hollowed out. Many local newspapers have shuttered, as they have across the country. The Los Angeles Times, the state’s biggest daily newspaper, is losing tens of millions of dollars a year and has suffered controversy and a loss of subscriptions over its owner’s decision to block an editorial endorsement of last year’s Democratic nominee for president, Kamala Harris. It cut its newsroom by more than 20 percent early last year, with further rounds of layoffs and buyouts this year.”
In a New York Post story announcing the big move, Robert Thomson — CEO of the Post’s parent company, News Corp.— was quoted as saying, “Los Angeles and California surely need a daily dose of The Post as an antidote to the jaundiced, jaded journalism that has sadly proliferated. 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.”
According to the Post story, The California Post 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 story added, “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.”
VOA head ousted
Michael Abramowitz has been fired as director of Voice of America after refusing to accept a reassignment running a broadcast station in North Carolina. The purpose of the reassignment was seemingly to either fire Abramowitz or to get him to quit.
The Washington Post’s Scott Nover wrote, “The Trump administration’s action against Abramowitz, a critic of efforts to dismantle the agency, is the latest in a series of moves to consolidate power at an institution that has long run the U.S. government’s foreign broadcasting operations. Kari Lake, whom Trump chose to head the Voice of America, has not been able to take up that post in large part because Trump dismissed the Senate-confirmed board in charge of removing and appointing directors. Instead she has served as the effective but unofficial head of the USAGM.”
Check out Nover’s story for more.
An important post
As previously mentioned in this newsletter, political reporter Dan Balz was one of the many big-time names to accept the buyout at The Washington Post. He is stepping away from full-time work at the Post, and reflected on that in “After 47 years on the political beat for The Post, it’s transition time.”
Balz wrote, “Politics is much coarser today at every level. ‘Evil’ and ‘enemy’ are the starting words to describe one’s opponents. Congress is dysfunctional despite occasional successes. Neither major political party is healthy. The Republican Party no longer resembles the one I began covering years ago. It has succumbed to one man. The Democratic Party’s coalition fractured, its image is at low ebb. Democrats flounder as they seek both a savior and a message. More significant than any of these, however, is what stands before us, as the occupant of the White House attempts to impose his will on the country through unceasing pressure on nearly every institution inside the government and out. He is stretching and bending the boundaries of the presidency as far as possible, with little effective resistance, in a bid to accumulate ever more power.”
Balz also wrote about the changes going on with the Post, adding, “I leave full-time work at a time of change at The Post. We have lost, as one friend said, the equivalent of a great newspaper in the people who have departed for other organizations or taken a voluntary buyout over the past year. Whatever the outside world may think, there has been no slacking off in our newsroom. My colleagues continue to break stories, dig deep and hold the president and others with power — elected and otherwise — to account. The Post newsroom is filled with gifted and committed journalists, as it always has been. That I could work among them for so many years has been a joy and a privilege.”
Speaking of the Post
Columbia Journalism Review’s Jon Allsop writes about all the comings and goings — well, make that the goings and goings — at the Post in “The Exodus from the Washington Post.”
Allsop writes, “Is the Post dying? Some media-watchers have said so overtly; others have talked about its future in existential terms. It’s certainly clear that the paper has been in bad shape for a while.”
I cherry-picked that one quote, but should note that Allsop puts all into context and detail — so check out this analysis.
And one more Post (sort of) item
Carol Leonnig, who spent 25 years at the Post and won multiple Pulitzer Prizes, is joining MSNBC as a senior investigative correspondent.
Leonnig was the lead reporter for The Washington Post’s Pulitzer-winning coverage of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. She was also part of the Post teams that won Pulitzers in 2022, 2017 and 2014.
Judge for yourself
