Murdoch Watch

Remember Rupert Murdoch, the Australian press baron who bounded onto the New York publishing scene last winter by buying the city's only afternoon newspaper, the Post, then acquiring New York Magazine Co. (TIME cover, Jan. 17)? Well, after virtually dropping from sight, Murdoch is back in circulation, and his circulation is doing bloody well, mate. The Post's average daily sale last week topped 600,000 copies--a gain of more than 100,000 since Murdoch took over and the highest circulation since 1974.* About 80% of the new readers, however, were inherited from the Long Island Press, which folded March 25; the Post has acquired most of its home-delivery system in Queens and Nassau County. The other 20% of new readers apparently like the Post's jazzier typography, shorter stories, expanded racing, rock, gossip and television coverage, additional comic strips, and sensational banner headlines (FBI INFILTRATES MOB TRASH BIZ; GIRL, 15, HELD IN SLAYING OF MOM).

Circulation is also up marginally at New York, is holding steady at its stablemate New West and is down slightly at the Village Voice. Editorial flavor has changed little--except at New York, which new Editor James Brady has made blander, filling the magazine with the kind of food, entertainment and home-decorating spreads that Founder Clay Felker saved for slow weeks.

Murdoch has always aimed to satisfy and feels he is succeeding. In his first public pronouncement in five months, he chided fellow publishers for not following that editorial philosophy. "I cannot avoid the temptation," he told members of the American Newspaper Publishers Association in San Francisco, "of wondering whether there is any other industry in this country which seeks to presume so completely to give the customer what he does not want."

* Circulation is also on the rise at the Post's morning competitors, the Daily News (up 50,000 over last April to 1.977.000) and the Times (up 33,000, to 860.000).

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.