New York Post

New York Post, American tabloid newspaper based in New York City. It is known for its conservative editorial positions, its salacious gossip column known as Page Six, and its often outlandish headlines. Founded by Alexander Hamilton in 1801, it has been run by Rupert Murdoch and his family since the early 1990s.

Origin story

The Post was established in 1801 by Hamilton under the name the New York Evening Post. Unsurprisingly, the paper took a Federalist stance, and initial investors included fellow members of Hamilton’s Federalist Party. The first editor was William Coleman, and in 1829 noted poet and abolitionist William Cullen Bryant became editor. The paper was well respected under the editorship of Bryant and his successor, William Leggett, and was known for its literary reviews as well as political editorials. Under Leggett, a member of the Equal Rights Party, the paper took pro-union, anti-central banking stances. Another notable figure in the operation of the Evening Post in the 19th century was renowned Benjamin Franklin historian John Bigelow. Journalist and financier Henry Villard took control of the Evening Post in 1881, when he also acquired The Nation. Control of the paper was passed to his son, Oswald Garrison Villard, a founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Villard sold the paper in 1918 because his non-interventionist stance on World War I led to steep financial losses.

Following a series of ownership changes, the paper was purchased by Cyrus H.K. Curtis in 1924, a conservative who changed the format of the paper to a tabloid style, which the paper maintained until 1934, when J. David Stern shifted the paper back to a broadsheet. Under Stern’s ownership, the paper’s name changed to the New York Post. In the early 20th century the paper hired Clara Savage Littledale to cover suffrage issues as its first female reporter. In 1939 the paper was purchased by Dorothy Schiff, the granddaughter of an investment banker. Though Schiff had little business experience, under her nearly four decades of leadership the paper thrived, embracing both its modern day tabloid format and its owner’s penchant for gossip. The paper was known for its liberal tilt and for attracting respected journalists, including Pete Hamill, and columnists, including former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

The Murdoch era(s)

In 1976 Schiff sold the New York Post to Murdoch, an Australian media magnate. The Post would ultimately become part of the Murdoch’s News Corporation. Murdoch sold the paper in 1988 in response to federal regulations limiting media cross-ownership but purchased the paper again in 1993 in the wake of the paper’s bankruptcy, having received a special waiver from the Federal Communications Commission. Under Murdoch’s ownership, the paper took on a more sensationalist tone and conservative political bent similar to Murdoch-owned Australian and British papers.

Murdoch was known to use the paper to promote both political positions and candidates, including:

• Ronald Reagan, who credited Murdoch and the Post with helping him win the 1980 presidential election.
• New York Mayor Ed Koch, who noted that the Post’s positive coverage of him during the 1977 race “made the difference between winning and losing, and I am very grateful.”
• Hillary Clinton and Murdoch maintained a close relationship, with him hosting a fundraiser for her in 2006 when it appeared that the New York senator and former first lady might secure the 2008 Democratic Party nomination for president. That changed, however, when Barack Obama entered the political scene.

Although the paper supported both Democratic and Republican candidates, its coverage of social issues—particularly race—often drew ire. The paper’s coverage of the Central Park jogger case, in which five Black and Hispanic teenagers were wrongfully convicted of a brutal attack on a white woman, was particularly divisive. Its coverage presumed the guilt of the five and included reporting that described “packs of bloodthirsty teens from the tenements, bursting with boredom and rage, roam[ing] the streets getting kicks from an evening of ultra-violence.”

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The Post prided itself on its audacious, often ribald, sometimes tasteless headlines. Perhaps no headline in Post history was more famous than the one that appeared on a gruesome murder story of a decapitation at a strip club. The front page screamed: “Headless Body in Topless Bar.” The headline was skewered on Saturday Night Live and by late-night host David Letterman. In 1984 the Post discovered that a woman who was accused of running an escort service on New York’s Upper West Side had ancestors who had traveled to America on the Mayflower, and the moniker “the Mayflower Madam” was born.

In the 1980s, ’90s, and 2000s the paper frequently featured real estate developer, reality TV star, and future U.S. president Donald Trump as part of its gossipy Page Six coverage. But Murdoch and the paper did not initially express strong support for Trump during his first presidential bid. Though the paper endorsed Trump in the 2016 New York Republican primary, the Post endorsed neither Trump nor Clinton in the general election. Trump has called the New York Post his “favorite newspaper,” and Trump and Murdoch maintained a close relationship throughout Trump’s first presidency. In October 2020 the paper published a story about information found on a laptop purported to belong to Hunter Biden, son of then presidential candidate Joe Biden. The story claimed that emails found on the laptop supported conservative claims of corrupt relationships between the Bidens and Ukrainian businessmen. Social media companies, including Facebook and Twitter, almost immediately shut down links to the story, calling it disinformation. Major media outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and National Public Radio reported skeptically on the allegations, noting that named sources included Trump acolytes Steve Bannon and Rudy Giuliani. Ultimately, the existence of the laptop and its contents led the president’s son to plead guilty to three felony charges. President Biden was never implicated in wrongdoing.

Beyond the sensational laptop coverage, the paper endorsed Trump for reelection in 2020 but attacked Trump’s campaign to overturn the election results, publishing front page editorials encouraging Trump to “give it up” and “stop the insanity.” However, in April 2023 the Murdoch-owned Fox News reached a nearly $800 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems over the network’s false claims of election fraud.

In September 2023 the 92-year-old Murdoch announced that he was stepping down from running his media properties and handing control to his son Lachlan Murdoch.

As of September 2024 the New York Post was the third largest newspaper by circulation in the United States, behind the News Corporation-owned Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, with an average daily circulation of 122,000 copies.