The Murdoch family’s pugnacious U.S. daily tabloid is headed to California.
The New York Post Media Group said Monday that it is launching a West Coast newspaper in the style of its namesake East Coast periodical. The California Post will be a daily newspaper in the mold of the New York Post, with an early cover mock-up leaning in on its usual pun-heavy headlines and culture war interests: Sydney Sweeney with the headline “WE DREAM OF JEAN-Y.”
The expansion of the Murdoch family’s business, which also includes Fox News parent Fox Corp., is among the biggest moves since Lachlan Murdoch took control of the media empire built by his father, Rupert Murdoch, 94, in 2023.
News Corp., which publishes the Post, also faces a sizable lawsuit from President Donald Trump against one of its other papers, The Wall Street Journal, related to an article about Trump’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
The New York Post, which has been publishing since 1801, has remained a conservative voice in an otherwise left-leaning region, enduring the ups and downs of modern media by sticking to its strengths: splashy headlines and aggressive reporting on local crime, politics and sports, along with an avowed right-of-center perspective.
California — Los Angeles in particular — has become a flashpoint in American culture and politics. Sizable protests against immigration raids and quippy comments from Gov. Gavin Newsom have made the state a target of Trump’s ire.
News Corp. CEO Robert Thomson nodded at the Post and its slant in a news release for the California paper.
“Los Angeles and California surely need a daily dose of The Post as an antidote to the jaundiced, jaded journalism that has sadly proliferated,” Thomson said.
Los Angeles is home to a wide variety of news outlets, including the Los Angeles Times and many entertainment-focused publications, such as Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, as well as newer entrants, most notably TMZ, which is owned by Fox Corp.
The California Post will be based in Los Angeles and led by Nick Papps, who was most recently weekend editor at The Herald Sun, a major Australian newspaper and subsidiary of News Corp. He also was a West Coast correspondent for The Herald Sun.
Having its headquarters outside the state has not prevented the New York Post from covering California news at length, but Post Editor-in-Chief Keith Poole said the publications will make the state a focus.
California “is the epicenter of entertainment, the AI revolution and advanced manufacturing—not to mention a sports powerhouse,” Poole said in the news release, adding that he thinks the state is lacking in “common-sense, issue based journalism.”
