The New York Post, the brashest and most boisterous “tell it like it is” tabloid, is launching a California edition with a full locally-based staff early next year.

The Post combines muckraking local coverage of stories no one else dares cover, with punchy headlines and common-sense editorials. Robert Thomson, The Post‘s publisher, says its new edition will be an “antidote to the jaundiced, jaded journalism” of the Golden State.

This comes at a perfect time.

The Los Angeles Times has cut its newsroom by over 25% since last year, The San Francisco Chronicle is on the same downward trajectory and alternative papers are closing.  By contrast, The New York Post has been profitable for the last three years. There’s no law of economics that says newspapers have to lose money.

We will see if there are still enough non-leftists left in California to make this project work. We hope so.