Who

Australian import Allan is the editor-in-chief of the New York Post, the tabloid owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

Backstory

The son of an electrical supply store owner, Colin Allan grew up in a New South Wales backwater called Dubbo and failed out of the Australian National University in Canberra. After covering the police and local politics beats at a paper called (ironically) the Daily Liberal, Allan entered the employ of Rupert Murdoch for the first time, serving as a cub reporter at Murdoch's Sydney afternoon paper the Daily Mirror. Allan's initial stint stateside came in the late '70s, when he served as New York correspondent for Murdoch's Australian; he later returned to his homeland, where he worked his way up to the editorship of the Murdoch-owned Daily Telegraph, transforming it into the leading tabloid in town (and getting dubbed Col Pot in the process for his tyrannical behavior).

Allan returned to the U.S. in April 2001 to assume control of what is arguably Murdoch's most important daily newspaper, the New York Post. (He replaced Xana Antunes.) An editor in the classic Murdoch mold—hard-drinking, hard-charging, and intensely competitive—Allan has described his job as "the best fun I've had with clothes on."

Grudge

The Post's feud with Mort Zuckerman's Daily News is the fiercest—and certainly the best-known—media rivalry in town; although the animosity between the billionaires predated Allan's arrival, it's heated up considerably since he entered the picture. For the moment, Allan seems to have the upper hand. When the Aussie took over in 2001, the Daily News was the circulation front-runner; that's changed over the past few years—the Post now outsells the News—although, as Zuckerman is quick to point out, the Daily News ekes out a small profit while the Post is a perennial money-loser. (Murdoch has lowered the price of the paper at newsstands in order to sell more copies.)

Allan clearly relishes the battle with his crosstown rival. It was his idea, for example, to erect a giant billboard bragging about the Post's circulation across from the offices of the Daily News; and he makes sure hardly a day goes by without the paper taking a shot at the "Daily Snooze" for an errant fact or typo. One thing that's off limits, though, is Zuckerman himself. With the help of Howard Rubenstein, Murdoch and Zuckerman ironed out a backroom truce a few years ago to keep the billionaires' respective private lives out of the papers.

Drama

While the Post's tawdry coverage of the news occasionally offends sensitive types, the paper's flagrantly conservative political leanings have irked liberals for close to two decades now. Allan is routinely accused of carrying out Murdoch's political agenda, although now that the Aussie billionaire owns the Wall Street Journal, it appears critics in search of bias have turned their eyes elsewhere.

Allan's most controversial moments, however, came in 2006 when one of his employees, Page Six staffer Jared Paul Stern, was accused of blackmail. (Billionaire Ron Burkle alleged that Stern had promised him favorable coverage in the column in exchange for a monthly cash retainer.) Stern was never prosecuted, but the saga raised questions about improprieties at the Richard Johnson-edited column, claims that resurfaced a year later when another Page Sixer, Ian Spiegelman, made similar allegations. Spiegelman even dragged Allan's name into the imbroglio, accusing the Aussie of having enjoyed "sexual favors" from strippers at Scores one evening. Allan admitted he'd been to Scores but says his conduct was "beyond reproach."

Personal

Allan lives with his wife, Sharon Allan, and four children on the Upper West Side.

No joke

Remember that embarrassing Post front-page "scoop" that John Kerry had picked Dick Gephardt as his running mate in the 2004 presidential election? Spiegelman claims the erroneous information was provided by a Democratic operative to Lachlan Murdoch who, in turn, passed it to Allan in a deliberate bid to make the paper look foolish.