Chutzpah Is Never Having To Say You're Sorry

RICHARD JOHNSON
Unbelievable. The New York Post is planning a major expansion of its Page Six brand, hoping to turn the gossip franchise into a multimedia, cross-platform powerhouse like AOL's TMZ.com. The fun starts this fall with the weekly launch of Page Six: The Magazine—I'm hearing it's going to be modeled after the British titles Grazia and ES, the Evening Standard supplement—and continues next year with TV and web initiatives.

Why is all this amazing? Only because it was a mere 14 months ago that P6 reporter Jared Paul Stern was accused of shaking down billionaire Ron Burkle, touching off a spate of revelations about the deeply entrenched lack of ethics that prevailed at the page under top editor Richard Johnson. More recently still, Johnson admitted to taking an envelope full of cash as a gift from a frequent story subject (though he insisted he used it to buy his staff drinks, not for personal gain).

Another newspaper owner might rid himself of an operation that had brought so much shame and censure to his company (particularly at a time when he needed all the credibility he could muster). Rupert Murdoch just doubles down. You almost have to admire it—almost.

Photo credit: Robert Pitts /Landov