Thomson said both Los Angeles and California 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.”
The new publication is set to launch next year. Credit: NYT
The paper will be based in Los Angeles. While it said its editors, reporters and photographers will all bring a distinctly Californian perspective to news, News Corp has enlisted an Australian editor to launch the publication. Papps spent two years as a correspondent in Los Angeles between 2004 and 2006.
Most of his career has been in roles at the Herald Sun, most recently as weekend editor after standalone editor positions for Saturday and Sunday papers were abolished nationally last year across News Corp’s tabloids.
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He was also previously editor of the Geelong Advertiser. Current Advertiser editor Nadja Fleet was spotted at News Corp’s Southbank offices last week and is thought of as the front-runner to be named as Papps’ replacement.
News Corp has a long history of appointing staff from its Australian business, or with Australian origins, to global or local positions in the US. Thomson, the company’s global CEO, hails from Victoria, while Col Allen was editor-in-chief of The Daily Telegraph before being appointed to edit The New York Post, a job held for 15 years.
Another former Australian editor, Frank Devine, was appointed by Rupert Murdoch to edit both the Chicago Sun-Times and later The New York Post.
The largest daily newspaper in Los Angeles, The Los Angeles Times, suffered significant backlash in 2024 after its owner, Patrick Soon-Shiong, instructed its editor and editorial board not to endorse Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. The Times also cut around 20 per cent of its staff last year.
The New York Post is known for its flashy and salacious headlines, gossip and sports coverage, all with a firm right-wing perspective. The California Post will launch in the lead up to next year’s California gubernatorial election, in which the current governor and Trump opponent Gavin Newsom will not be running.
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