Steve Cuozzo
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Steven D. Cuozzo (born January 17, 1950) is an American writer, newspaper editor, restaurant critic, real estate
columnist A columnist is a person who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Column (periodical), Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs. They take the ...
, and
op-ed An op-ed, short for "opposite the editorial page," is a type of written prose commonly found in newspapers, magazines, and online publications. They usually represent a writer's strong and focused opinion on an issue of relevance to a targeted a ...
contributor for the ''
New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates three online sites: NYPost. ...
''.


Early life

Cuozzo was born in Ocean Hill, Brooklyn, New York. He and his brother, Joseph G. Cuozzo, were children of Lillian (1922 - 1970) and Joseph A. Cuozzo (1916 - 1996), a Brooklyn electrical parts factory worker, and lived at 137 Hull St. In describing growing up in the Italian-Irish neighborhood of Ocean Hill near the J/Z line over Broadway, he noted in 2009, "I recall stoop sitting with neighbors and a happy blur of maternal grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins living in the building next door. I had my first pizza at a joint I recall as Jimmy's, on a corner lost to time a few blocks from home." Cuozzo attended kindergarten at a Brooklyn Catholic school and, when he was about six years old, his family moved to North Babylon in
Long Island, New York Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...
, where he would live for the next 17 years. In 1967, Cuozzo began attending
Stony Brook University Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public university, public research university in Stony Brook, New York, United States, on Long Island. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is on ...
located in
Stony Brook, New York Stony Brook is a political subdivisions of New York#Hamlet, hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Administrative divisions of New York#Town, Town of Brookhaven, New York, Brookhaven in Suffolk County, New York, United States, on the No ...
. In 1971, Cuozzo graduated from Stony Brook University as an English major.


Career


1970s–1980s

After graduating from Stony Brook University, Cuozzo began his first city job in 1972 as an administrative assistant at the Space for Innovative Development performing arts center. Cuozzo moved into a Riverside Drive apartment in
Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
and described his new experiences as marking his "portal of entry into Manhattan," where he had his "first whiff of big-city glamour and grit." On December 18, 1972, Cuozzo began working as a copy boy in the city room at 210 South Street at the ''
New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates three online sites: NYPost. ...
''. In a 2012 interview, Cuozzo noted about his entry-level job that "In those days, it literally meant, besides getting coffee for the editors, it meant carrying pieces of copy around." For the next four years, Cuozzo worked in the business run by Dorothy Schiff, an owner and publisher of the ''Post'' for nearly 40 years. Cuozzo later would characterize the ''Post'' during these four years as a "bastion of principled liberalism" that produced a "stunted
broadsheet A broadsheet is the largest newspaper format and is characterized by long Vertical and horizontal, vertical pages, typically of in height. Other common newspaper formats include the smaller Berliner (format), Berliner and Tabloid (newspaper ...
" with "the graphic appeal of a pothole" In 1976, liberal Schiff sold the ''Post'' to conservative Australian American business magnate
Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian - American retired business magnate, investor, and media mogul. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of List of assets owned by News Corp, local, national, a ...
for a reported $31 million (equals $ million in ). Cuozzo subsequently worked for Murdoch for many years and, in 1996, would be described as viewing Murdoch as "part Santa Claus, part
William Randolph Hearst William Randolph Hearst (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American newspaper publisher and politician who developed the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His extravagant methods of yellow jou ...
and always larger than life." In August 1977, the core of Cuozzo's childhood Brooklyn neighborhood of Ocean Hill was destroyed by looters and arsonists during the New York City blackout of 1977. Cuozzo would describe this in 2012 as one of his worst memories. Cuozzo was promoted at the ''Post'' in early 1979 to entertainment editor with the title arts and leisure editor. On November 29, 1980, Cuozzo married Jane Hershey, daughter of Solomon G. Hershey, a professor of
anesthesiology Anesthesiology, anaesthesiology or anaesthesia is the medical specialty concerned with the total perioperative medicine, perioperative care of patients before, during and after surgery. It encompasses anesthesia, intensive care medicine, critica ...
, and Lenore Hershey, editor-in-chief of the '' Ladies' Home Journal.'' Jane Hershey was a New York-based writer and editor who contributed to a variety of periodicals, including '' Good Housekeeping'', Fodor's Travel Publications, and '' Hollywood Magazine.'' In the fall of 1981, Cuozzo was promoted to assistant managing editor in charge of features. In addition to performing the duties of features editor, Cuozzo also was organizing contests and sweepstakes in the paper. On a weekly basis, his job was to come up with a prize, which included a trip to Hawaii and "win breakfast with the baby elephant at the Bronx Zoo." By January 1988, Cuozzo had been working at the ''Post'' for about 16 years and held the position of assistant
managing editor A managing editor (ME) is a senior member of a publication's management team. Typically, the managing editor reports directly to the editor-in-chief and oversees all aspects of the publication. United States In the United States, a managing edi ...
. Commenting in September 1981 on a widespread concern that the ''Post'' would close, Cuozzo noted, "We were seemingly on the brink of extinction about 12 times in a much more heart-stopping way than this has yet become. I have full confidence in the boss (Murdoch) to somehow steer us through this as long as he is legally able to."


1990s

In August 1990, ''Power Partners: How Two-Career Couples Can Play to Win'', written by Cuozzo's wife Jane, was published. As both Cuozzo and his wife had careers as writers, the book focused on how dual-career couples can enhance their relationships by promoting each other's careers. The book played on tennis analogies and suggested that couples behave as coordinated doubles teams—for instance, providing their spouses' business card at opportune times to help them acquire new clients or accounts. In 1993, Cuozzo held the position of managing editor of the paper. However, in early 1993, Cuozzo and Gerard Bray, the paper's previous interim editor, were appointed co-executive editors, with Marc Kalech, the former metro editor, being elevated to managing editor. Each would be working under Pete Hamill, the new editor-in-chief of the ''New York Post''. About a month later, on Monday, March 15, 1993, the 400,000-circulation ''New York Post'' filed for bankruptcy protection. Hamill and 72 other staffers had been fired the previous Friday, with Hamill and 50 of the staffers being rehired on Wednesday, five days later. With the ''Post'' down to its last 11 rolls of film, and lacking any money to develop any film, executive editor Cuozzo said, "We are in imminent danger of shutting down unless we can get help quickly. We're probably out of money." He noted how prior ''Post'' owner Abraham Hirschfeld refused to pay overdue bills for vendors, delivery, or security guards, or to pay
Social Security Welfare spending is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifically to social insurance ...
taxes and pension contributions. Cuozzo arranged to have rival newspaper, the '' Daily News'', lend the ''Post'' film. At the end of March, Rupert Murdoch signed an agreement to reclaim the ''Post.'' Predicting that Murdoch would become less abrasive, as compared to his prior ownership of the ''Post'', Cuozzo noted, "He is a different Rupert Murdoch than six or seven years ago. I suspect in his second coming he would be less involved in the affairs of the paper because he now has a television network and a studio to look after." Cuozzo took the story to Times Books and, in April 1993, signed a contract with them to write an anecdotal memoir about the ''Post''. In October 1993, the Newspaper Guild labor union went on strike and Cuozzo was put in the position to help publish the paper with only editors and managers. At the time, he felt that the union failed to recognize that, without Murdoch, there would be no ''Post'' and no jobs for anyone at the ''Post.'' Cuozzo saw the Guild's 1993 strike actions as "bullheaded and intransigent." In June 1996, Cuozzo's book, ''It's Alive! How America's Oldest Newspaper Cheated Death and Why It Matters'', was published. In the book, Cuozzo uses his experiences from when he joined he ''Post'' as a copy boy in 1972 through his mid-April 1996 receipt of the ''Posts new Sunday edition to present an anecdotal
memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based on the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autob ...
that traces modern history at the then-195-year-old ''New York Post'' and describes its effect on America's news culture. In addition, throughout the book, he expresses his views, such as the ''Post'' "asserted the importance of human emotions in the affairs of the world" and the newspaper's "emphasis on individual accountability" instilled discipline in American society, crediting the ''Post'' for capturing "the energy" of New York City and originating what he characterizes as the United States' positive trend towards tabloidization of the news. Cuozzo described the Post's '' Page Six'' gossip column as "a meaner brand of gossip, and more personal," saying it was used to settle scores "not unlike that of nuclear aircraft carriers in the U.S. Navy: to intimidate Third World nuisances." He described former ''Post'' owner Abe Hirschfeld, who four years later would be convicted of soliciting murder, as "a squat bundle of free-floating hostility." In 2004, New Zealand-born Australian
newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as poli ...
editor and journalist Frank Devine stated that the September 2003 book, ''The Murdoch Archipelago'', drew extensively on Cuozzo's ''It's Alive!'' book for the Murdoch Archipelago's account of Murdoch's experiences with the ''Post.'' In October 1996, Cuozzo appeared on ''
Think Tank A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governme ...
'', a discussion program that aired on
Public Broadcasting Service The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia Arlington County, or simply Arlington, is a County (United States), county in the ...
(PBS) and was hosted by Ben Wattenberg. The show, entitled ''Is Public Journalism, Journalism?'', set out to discuss whether there was a new journalism that "sets out to go beyond just the facts and tries to shape the agenda." In commenting on conventional journalism during the show, Cuozzo noted that an underlying assumption of its journalistic elitism is "that the public is incapable of making up its own mind or listening or applying any critical thinking to issues in an environment in which there are many voices being heard." During the show, Cuozzo contrasted tabloid journalism with the area in which he works, noting, "Tabloid journalism is journalism driven by a focused concentration on individuals as distinct from the workings of institutions. So even if we cover institutions, such as government or the
Federal Reserve The Federal Reserve System (often shortened to the Federal Reserve, or simply the Fed) is the central banking system of the United States. It was created on December 23, 1913, with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, after a series of ...
, we tend to do so from the point with the perspective that they're run by individual men and women." Cuozzo noted that monopoly newspaper markets tend to publish articles that "march in lock step with the advertising community," and newspapers that promote or tolerate public journalism do so with the hope of selling more advertising rather than selling more papers. In describing the ''Post'' and its place in New York public journalism, Cuozzo noted, In November 1998 at the age of 48, Cuozzo took on the assignment as the ''Post's'' restaurant critic, in addition to his position as executive editor. As a new restaurant critic, Cuozzo said that he would aim to "appeal to the great body of restaurant goers who are passionate about dining out without necessarily being food specialists." Cuozzo planned to review one dining establishment each week. In November 1999, Cuozzo began his weekly commercial real estate column, "Realty Check". In the first column, entitled ''Ross Ready To Set Sail on Columbus'', Cuozzo interviewed real estate developer Stephen M. Ross. By 2012, Cuozzo was characterized as developing a view that "restaurant folk are meaner than brokers and developers."


2000s

In August 2000, Cuozzo served as one of eight food experts to provide their choices for the 10 elite chefs of Manhattan. Cuozzo and the panel selected in their top 10, chefs including Daniel Boulud, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Nobu Matsuhisa, and Gray Kunz, as well as Christian Delouvrier, Mario Batali, Eric Ripert, and Alfred Portale. In 2003, gossip columnist and writer Cindy Adams described her longtime boss Steve Cuozzo in an article entitled ''Leave Me Alone!'', writing: " n 1981 Steve Cuozzo was dispatched to spy on me. Keep me on track. A lifetime later, he's still spying on me. Forget keeping me on track. He's now trying to derail me. The man has just gleefully sent me a tub of e-mails, each of which deposits bodily fluid upon my person. I mean, thank God he's my friend. Imagine if he didn't like me." In 2005, the ''Post'' stopped running classic reviews directed towards "eating one's way through a new place every week," which was part of a trend in United States newspapers at that time. Cuozzo attributed the decline of the newspaper restaurant critic to the dilution of the power of the critic through the numerous websites and blogs that allowed people to express their opinions about their meals. Cuozzo also noted that restaurants had become bigger, more complex, and more press-savvy as other factors in the decline of the newspaper restaurant critic. In July 2008, Cuozzo appeared on '' Just in with Laura Ingraham'', a news program broadcast on the
Fox News Channel The Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox News, is an American multinational conservative news and political commentary television channel and website based in New York City, U.S. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is ow ...
.


2010s

By March 2012, Cuozzo was writing his weekly "Realty Check" real estate column, was the ''Post's'' top restaurant critic, and edited the paper's ''Page Six'' gossip page. In describing his experience with brokers and developers in writing his "Realty Check" column, Cuozzo noted in a 2012 interview, "Most rokers and developersreally care about the city. They really love New York City and they love what they do and they derive extraordinary gratification from participating in the transactions that bring beneficial change to neighborhoods and alter perceptions about different parts of the city." In July 2012, Cuozzo was ranked No. 96 in ''
The New York Observer ''The New York Observer'' was a weekly newspaper established in 1987. In 2016, it ceased print publication and became the online-only newspaper ''Observer''. The media site focuses on culture, real estate, media, politics and the entertainment ...
's'' list of ''The 100 Most Powerful People in New York Real Estate.'' As of 2013, Cuozzo writes as a restaurant critic, real estate columnist, and op-ed contributor at the ''New York Post'' and lives with his wife Jane on the Upper East Side in New York.


Publications

* * Steve Cuozzo's first
byline The byline (or by-line in British English) on a newspaper or magazine article gives the name of the writer of the article. Bylines are commonly placed between the headline and the text of the article, although some magazines (notably '' Reader's ...
: reporting on the formation of Dennis Wayne's Dancers in the summer of 1975. * Steve Cuozzo's first article as a restaurant critic: * Steve Cuozzo's first weekly "Realty Check" real estate column: * 1998 article co-written by Steve Cuozzo with wife Jane on their travels through Italy:


References


External links


New York Post articles by Steve Cuozzo
*

* 2012 commentary on Steve Cuozzo's restaurant criticism: * 2012 commentary on Steve Cuozzo's real estate views: {{DEFAULTSORT:Cuozzo, Steve 1950 births 20th-century American newspaper editors 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers American autobiographers American restaurant critics American memoirists American newspaper executives American people of Italian descent American commentators Criticism of journalism Editors of New York City newspapers American gossip columnists Journalists from New York City Living people New York Post people People from Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn People from North Babylon, New York People from the Upper East Side Writers from Manhattan Stony Brook University alumni 20th-century American male writers American male non-fiction writers 21st-century American male writers