California Post launched Monday in Los Angeles as a new tabloid newspaper and companion news site, aiming to bring the look and tone of the New York Post to California readers. The operation is set to be “digital first,” with social media and video and audio content, while also selling a daily print edition for $3.75.
Nick Papps, editor-in-chief of the LA newsroom, said the paper’s front page is central to its identity. He described the headlines as distinctive and said they are the “calling card” for the outlet.
For its inaugural edition, California Post used a full-page headline aimed at Hollywood during awards season: “Oscar Wild - Shocking truth behind director Safdie brothers’ mystery split.” Papps said the newsroom, which he described as growing to between 80 and 100 staffers, would focus on issues important to “everyday, hardworking” Californians, including homelessness, affordability, technology and “law and order.” He also said he declined to preview what specific stories reporters were chasing or what political columnists would publish in early editions.
Papps said California Post would adapt the New York Post’s entertainment branding for the West Coast, including a Page Six Hollywood section to track red carpets and celebrity culture. He also said sports coverage would be a major component, with coverage of the state’s top pro teams plus plans for major events including the World Cup and Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
In a statement from last year announcing the expansion, News Corp. chief executive Robert Thomson said he expected the new paper to play a role in engaging readers who were “starved of serious reporting and puckish wit.” Thomson said California was plagued by “jaundiced, jaded journalism” in language reflecting the New York Post’s punchier style.
Analysts said the venture’s style and politics may influence how it competes for attention, even if it does not behave like traditional metro newsrooms. Gabriel Kahn, a professor at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, said “our statewide press is boring as bathwater,” particularly on politics, and he suggested that a major target could be Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. Kahn said he does not expect California Post to focus on breaking big stories in the “old-fashioned journalism” way, arguing instead that tabloids’ “crass cleverness” tends to work well on social media and could be “entertaining.”
Kahn also said he did not expect the venture to be a profit driver, pointing to the way News Corp. has used its New York Post property. He said the paper, in his view, serves a purpose beyond returns—“to bludgeon its enemies” and curry favor with people in power on the right—and he cited the Post’s presence in national politics and culture-war debates, including reporting that he associated with the Hunter Biden laptop saga. Kahn also said the Post has an avid readership among President Donald Trump, who gave the paper’s “Pod Force One” podcast an interview last summer.
The launch also arrives as the newspaper industry continues to confront the decline of print. The AP reported that more than 3,200 newspapers have closed nationwide since 2005, according to figures kept by Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, and it said many outlets have shifted to online platforms and new ways of monetizing attention. In California—home to nearly 40 million people—there are still dozens of newspapers, including dailies in and around Los Angeles, but the AP said Los Angeles has not had a dedicated regional tabloid in recent memory and that older institutions such as the Los Angeles Times have faced major layoffs.
Ted Johnson, a media and politics editor for Deadline in Washington, D.C., said a print launch “defies logic,” arguing that major metro outlets have been shrinking their print footprint quickly. He said “Rupert Murdoch, his first love is print,” framing California Post’s debut as a bet on the enduring appeal of the print product.