New Owner to Retain Conservative Editorial Tone : Reborn Post Won’t Be ‘Uptown Dandy’

Real estate developer Peter Kalikow took ownership of the New York Post today, vowing not to turn the paper into a “dandified uptown” publication but to uphold the conservative editorial tone established by his predecessor, Rupert Murdoch.

The $37.6-million agreement transferring title of the nation’s oldest continuously published newspaper to Kalikow from Australian-born media baron Murdoch was signed late Monday, said Howard Rubinstein, a spokesman for both men.

“A New Era,” read today’s headline above the tabloid’s bold, block-letter masthead. Inside, Kalikow discussed his vision for the Post, vowing to stem the paper’s financial losses.

Today is “the first day of the new New York Post, a paper that will remain committed to honest, aggressive and hard-hitting journalism,” Kalikow, 45, who has no previous experience in the newspaper business, told Post reporters.

“We don’t want to be a pale version of someone else’s newspaper. We don’t want to turn the Post into a newspaper of dandified uptown journalism or anything like that.”

Kalikow has promised Post employees who were concerned about whether he was more interested in the newspaper’s waterfront real estate than in publishing the Post that he would operate the newspaper for at least one year. Murdoch has said he was losing $100,000 a day running the newspaper.

The real estate developer, who is worth $450 million according to the Forbes 400, said he would try to attract more readers by spending millions of dollars in promotion, adding features, greatly expanding its investigative reporting and strengthening advertising revenues to make the paper profitable.

Reporters and managers said they could detect no differences in the newsroom as Murdoch turned over the paper to Kalikow.

“I think it’s a little too early to tell what changes will be made,” said David Miller, a reporter on the city desk.