Post-mortem--1/13/25

• 0 COMMENTS

Today's selection -- from Paper of Wreckage by Susan Mulcahy and Frank DiGiacomo. Rupert Murdoch's New York Post remains influential, but its future is uncertain amid digital competition and family dynamics.

“March 11, 2024, was Rupert Murdoch’s ninety-third birthday. The communications empire he built, and the angry, divisive point of view many of his properties disseminate, now dominates our culture. The New York Post is its foundation. Without it, there would be no Fox News, no Newsmax, and arguably, no MSNBC, which employs similar strategies of outrage and omission, albeit from a progressive liberal perspective. Without the Post, reporters and segment producers at other media outlets would have to work a lot harder because the tabloid continues to churn up story angles, trends, and scoops that, as the previous chapters have shown, are often repackaged without crediting the original source. Critics contend that without the Post, journalism would be more trusted and trustworthy. 

“For some who worked at the paper in earlier decades, today's Post is a hollow version of its original self. Some of that judgment is generational, in the way that Baby Boomers think everything was better in the ‘60s and the ‘70s. The internet, which has decimated print journalism in general and is now collecting the skulls of digital titles, also has much to do with the Post’s failings. The competition to break stories is relentless, and the need to drive traffic means Page Six leans heavily on items tied to reality television, while the Post’s digital operation blasts out stories involving grisly crimes, celebrity beefs, and the Hunter Biden news.

“Then again, while debate continues over the ethics of releasing personal information on Biden’s laptop, as well as the veracity of some of the data, its existence is not Russian propaganda. And Twitter and Facebook’s decision to censure the tabloid’s reporting challenges the notion that the Post is not as powerful a bully pulpit as it once was. Comments Donald Trump made in late 2023 suggest that he still pays close attention to the tabloid: ‘Since The New York Post went bad on Trump they have gone bad, their numbers have fallen tremendously.’ In reality, Alliance for Audited Media (AAM) data shows that the tabloid’s average circulation has grown by more than 100,000 since 2020 when it ‘went bad on Trump.’ But as Murdoch’s history of throwing in with winners has shown, that could change. 

The front page on June 14, 2022.

“As for the decades-long rivalry between the Post and the Daily News, Murdoch’s tabloid is the clear winner. The News, now owned by the hedge fund Alden Global Capital, is a bare-bones operation without a physical newsroom. The last available AAM reports, from March 2024, put the Post’s combined print and digital average circulation at 510,077 for its Monday through Friday editions, and 517,735 for Sunday. The News’ circulation: 92,927 and 115,114, respectively.

“Ironically, it’s the print version of the Post -- where local and state political coverage, investigative stories, and the business section are not buried in some digital Siberia -- that can still carry here, especially when it reports on woke hypocrisy and wrongheaded political correctness. And because of its outrageous tone, the Post continues to act as a beacon to a particular demographic – the less anarchic, more corporate descendants of the punks who embraced the paper in the late 1970s; on August 13, 2018, Supreme, the uber-trendy skateboard and streetwear brand, wrapped the print edition of the Post in a special ad. Regular readers could not find the paper that day as collectors and resellers hit newsstands and bodegas, buying every copy they could find. 

“Whether its print edition -- or the Post at all -- outlives Rupert Murdoch is a question that has swirled since the media baron hit his eighties. When the inevitable happens, the consensus is that the surviving members of Murdoch’s family -- whose internecine dramas partly inspired the hit HBO series Succession -- and leadership at News Corp will either eliminate the Post’s print edition or close or sell the paper.”

author:	Susan Mulcahy, Frank DiGiacomo
title:	Paper of Wreckage: The Rogues, Renegades, Wiseguys, Wankers, and Relentless Reporters Who Redefined American Media
publisher:	Atria Books
pages:	520-521