Editing New York Post (section)

===20th century===
[[File:SUBWAY RIDERS LOST IN THEIR OWN THOUGHTS AND READING THE NEWSPAPER ON THE LEXINGTON AVENUE LINE OF THE NEW YORK CITY... - NARA - 556666.jpg|thumb|A [[New York City Subway]] passenger reading the ''New York Post'' in April 1974]]
Villard sold the newspaper in 1918 following widespread allegations of pro-[[Nazi Germany|German]] sympathies during [[World War I]] hurt the newspaper's circulation. The new owner was [[Thomas W. Lamont|Thomas Lamont]], a senior partner in the [[Wall Street]] firm of [[J.P. Morgan & Co.]] Unable to stem the paper's financial losses, he sold it to a [[consortium]] of 34 financial and reform political leaders, headed by [[Edwin Francis Gay]], dean of the [[Harvard Business School]], whose members included [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]. 

In 1924, [[Conservatism in the United States|conservative]] [[Cyrus H. K. Curtis]],<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.bklyn-genealogy-info.com/Newspaper/NYNewspapers.html| title=New York Newspapers and Editors| access-date=June 7, 2007| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071022190635/http://www.bklyn-genealogy-info.com/Newspaper/NYNewspapers.html| archive-date=October 22, 2007| url-status=live}}</ref> publisher of the ''[[Ladies Home Journal]]'', purchased the ''Evening Post''<ref name=ketupa>{{cite web|url=http://www.ketupa.net/curtis.htm|title=ketupa.net media profiles: curtis|access-date=June 7, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061102224549/http://www.ketupa.net/curtis.htm|archive-date=November 2, 2006|url-status=dead}}</ref> and briefly turned it into a non-sensational [[Tabloid journalism|tabloid]] nine years later, in 1933.<ref name=ketupa/> 

In 1928, [[Wilella Waldorf]] became drama editor at the ''Evening Post''. She was one of the first women to hold an editorial role at the newspaper,<ref>''The New York Times'', March 13, 1946, p. 29 – Wilella Waldorf (obituary). Wilella Waldorf Dies Aged 46 (obituary)</ref> During her time at the ''Evening Post'', she was the only female first-string critic on a New York newspaper.<ref>Wilella Waldorf – encyclopedia.com</ref> She was preceded by [[Clara Littledale|Clara Savage Littledale]], the first woman reporter ever hired by the ''Post'' and the editor of the woman's page in 1914.<ref name="NAW">Littledale, Clara Savage. Edited by Barbara Sicherman, 1934– and Carol Hurd Green, 1935–; in Notable American Women: The Modern Period (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1980), 458–459</ref>

In 1934, [[J. David Stern]] purchased the paper, changed its name to the ''New York Post'',<ref name=ketupa/> and restored its broadsheet size and liberal perspective.<ref name=emery />{{rp|292}} For four months of that same year, future [[United States Senate|U.S. Senator]] from [[Alaska]] [[Ernest Gruening]] was an editor of the paper.

In 1939, [[Dorothy Schiff]] purchased the paper. Her husband [[George Backer]] was named editor and publisher.<ref>Deborah G. Felder & Diana L. Rosen, ''Fifty Jewish Women Who Changed the World'', Citadel Press, 2003, p. 164.</ref> Her second editor and third husband [[Ted Thackrey]] became co-publisher and co-editor with Schiff in 1942.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://jcgi.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,794542,00.html|title=Dolly's Goodbye| magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date= January 31, 1949|access-date=June 6, 2007}}</ref> Together, they recast the newspaper into its modern-day tabloid format.<ref name=emery />{{rp|556}}

In 1945, ''[[The Bronx Home News]]'' merged with it.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://archives.nypl.org/mss/401 |title=Bronx home news |publisher=nypl.org |access-date=3 January 2025 }}</ref> In 1949, [[James Wechsler]] became editor of the paper, running both the news and the editorial pages. In 1961, he turned over the news section to Paul Sann and stayed on as editorial page editor until 1980.

Under Schiff's tenure the ''Post'' was seen to have liberal tilt, supporting trade unions and social welfare, and featured some of the most popular columnists of the time, such as [[Joseph Cookman]], [[Drew Pearson (journalist)|Drew Pearson]], [[Eleanor Roosevelt]], [[Max Lerner]], [[Murray Kempton]], [[Pete Hamill]], and [[Eric Sevareid]], theatre critic [[Richard Watts Jr.]], and gossip columnist [[Earl Wilson (columnist)|Earl Wilson]].

In November 1976, it was announced that Australian [[Rupert Murdoch]] had bought the ''Post'' from Schiff with the intention that Schiff would be retained as a consultant for five years.<ref>{{cite news|last=Carmody|first=Deirdre|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/11/20/archives/new-jersey-pages-dorothy-schiff-agrees-to-sell-post-to-murdoch.html|title=Dorothy Schiff Agrees to Sell ''Post'' To Murdoch, Australian Publisher|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=November 20, 1976|access-date=December 30, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171230230317/http://www.nytimes.com/1976/11/20/archives/new-jersey-pages-dorothy-schiff-agrees-to-sell-post-to-murdoch.html|archive-date=December 30, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> In 2005, it was reported that Murdoch bought the newspaper for US$30.5 million.<ref name="hollywoodreporter2005"/> 

The ''Post'' at this point was the only surviving afternoon daily in New York City and its circulation under Schiff had grown by two-thirds, particularly after the failure of the competing ''[[New York World Journal Tribune|World Journal Tribune]]''; however, the rising cost of operating an afternoon daily in a city with worsening daytime traffic congestion, combined with mounting competition from expanded local radio and TV news cut into the ''Post''{{'}}s profitability, though it made money from 1949 until Schiff's final year of ownership, when it lost $500,000. The paper has lost money ever since.<ref name=emery />{{rp|74}}

In late October 1995, the ''Post'' announced plans to change its Monday through Saturday publication schedule and begin issuing a Sunday edition,<ref>{{cite news|date=October 24, 1995 |title=New York Post to Publish on Sundays |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/10/24/nyregion/new-york-post-to-publish-on-sundays.html |access-date=December 8, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131221000037/http://www.nytimes.com/1995/10/24/nyregion/new-york-post-to-publish-on-sundays.html |archive-date=December 21, 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref> which it last published briefly in 1989.<ref>{{cite news|date=February 5, 1996 |title=Post Plans Sunday Paper |work=[[The New York Times]] |page=6 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/02/05/nyregion/post-plans-sunday-paper.html |access-date=December 8, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131221000046/http://www.nytimes.com/1996/02/05/nyregion/post-plans-sunday-paper.html |archive-date=December 21, 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref> 

On April 14, 1996, the ''Post'' delivered its new Sunday edition at the cost of 50 cents per paper by keeping its size to 120 pages.<ref name="Orlando">{{cite news|date=April 14, 1996 |title=The New York Post Starts Inexpensive Sunday Paper |newspaper=[[Orlando Sentinel]] |page=A26 |url=http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/keyword/new-york-post/recent/2 |access-date=December 8, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131214064752/http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/keyword/new-york-post/recent/2 |archive-date=December 14, 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The amount, significantly less than Sunday editions from ''[[The New York Daily News]]'' and ''[[The New York Times]]'', was part of the ''Post''{{'}}s efforts "to find a niche in the nation's most competitive newspaper market".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/14/nyregion/slimmed-down-the-post-returns-to-sundays.html|title=Slimmed Down, The Post Returns to Sundays|date=April 14, 1996|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=July 15, 2020|archive-date=January 14, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240114132246/https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/14/nyregion/slimmed-down-the-post-returns-to-sundays.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Orlando"/>

Because of the institution of federal regulations limiting media [[cross ownership|cross-ownership]] after Murdoch's purchase of WNEW-TV, which is now [[WNYW]], and four other stations from [[Metromedia]] to launch the [[Fox Broadcasting Company]], Murdoch was forced to sell the paper for $37.6 million in 1988 (equivalent to ${{formatprice|{{inflation|US|37600000|1988}}}} in {{inflation/year|US}}){{inflation/fn|US}} to [[Peter S. Kalikow]], a real-estate magnate with no experience in the media industry.<ref name=MomentTruth>{{cite web|url=https://www.cjr.org/issues/2004/1/gangs-hickey.asp|title=Moment of Truth|author=Neil Hickey|work=[[Columbia Journalism Review]]|date=January–February 2004|access-date=June 7, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070423111034/https://www.cjr.org/issues/2004/1/gangs-hickey.asp |archive-date=April 23, 2007}}</ref> 

In 1988, the ''Post'' hired [[Jane Amsterdam]], founding editor of ''[[Manhattan, inc.]]'', as its first female editor, and within six months the paper had toned down the sensationalist headlines.<ref name="Tasteful Post">{{cite magazine|title=Grumbles at 'tasteless' Post|magazine=[[New York (magazine)|New York]]|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q-UCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA22|date=December 19, 1988|page=22}}</ref> 

Within a year, Amsterdam was forced out by Kalikow, who reportedly told her "credible doesn't sell...Your big scoops are great, but they don't sell more papers."<ref>{{cite news|last1=Kurtz|first1=Howard|title=Editor out at N.Y. Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/05/27/editor-out-at-ny-post/e8968510-34c3-4fc2-bda5-e7a6bddd65a3|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=May 27, 1989|access-date=January 25, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180126070842/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/05/27/editor-out-at-ny-post/e8968510-34c3-4fc2-bda5-e7a6bddd65a3/|archive-date=January 26, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1993, after Kalikow declared bankruptcy,<ref name=MomentTruth/> the paper was temporarily managed by [[Steven Hoffenberg]],<ref name=MomentTruth/> a financier who later pleaded guilty to [[security (finance)|securities]] [[fraud]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.securitization.net/pdf/nomura_abs_030502.pdf|title=ABS Credit Migrations|work=Nomura Fixed Income Research|date=March 5, 2002|page=20|access-date=June 7, 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070613235532/http://www.securitization.net/pdf/nomura_abs_030502.pdf|archive-date=June 13, 2007}}</ref> and for two weeks by [[Abraham Hirschfeld|Abe Hirschfeld]],<ref>Bob Fenster, ''Duh! The Stupid History of the Human Race'', McMeel, 2000, p. 13.</ref> who made his fortune building parking garages. 

Following a staff revolt against the Hoffenberg-Hirschfeld partnership, which included publication of an issue whose front page featured the iconic masthead picture of founder [[Alexander Hamilton]] with a single teardrop running down his cheek,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE1DD113CF935A25750C0A965958260|title=Fight for New York Post Heats Up In Court, in Newsroom and in Prin|last=Glaberson|first=William|date=March 16, 1993|access-date=March 22, 2009|work=[[The New York Times]]|archive-date=January 14, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240114132243/https://www.nytimes.com/1993/03/16/nyregion/fight-for-new-york-post-heats-up-in-court-in-newsroom-and-in-print.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2209&dat=19930316&id=CLRKAAAAIBAJ&pg=4398,3974074|title=N.Y. Post slams its new owner|work=The Telegraph|date=March 16, 1993|page=10|access-date=March 29, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150905191719/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2209&dat=19930316&id=CLRKAAAAIBAJ&sjid=k5QMAAAAIBAJ&pg=4398,3974074&hl=en|archive-date=September 5, 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> the ''Post'' was again purchased in 1993 by Murdoch's News Corporation. This came about after numerous political officials, including Democratic governor of New York [[Mario Cuomo]], persuaded the [[Federal Communications Commission]] to grant Murdoch a permanent waiver from the cross-ownership rules that had forced him to sell the paper five years earlier. Without this FCC ruling, the paper would have shut down.<ref name=MomentTruth/>