National Enquirer expected to be sold imminently as parent company faces pressure
Source: Washington Post
American Media Inc. is actively seeking to sell off the National Enquirer, according to three people familiar with the process who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The decision to sell came after the hedge fund manager whose firm controls AMI became disgusted with the Enquirers reporting tactics, according to one of these people.
American Media has been under intense pressure due to the Enquirers efforts to tilt the 2016 presidential election in favor of Donald Trump, who is a longtime friend of American Medias president and CEO, David Pecker. Pecker and his supermarket tabloid have also been embroiled in recent months in an unusually public feud with Jeff Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post.
In August, just as AMI and two of its top officers were finalizing a non-prosecution agreement with federal investigators, the companys board of directors started looking for ways to unload the tabloid business because they didnt want to deal with hassles like this anymore, another person said. The company was also facing financial difficulty as it sought to refinance more than $400 million in debt earlier this year and as the Enquirers circulation continued to decline, along with broader newsstand trends. The paper sold an average of 516,000 copies per issue in 2014, but that number fell to 218,000 in December, according to data compiled by the Alliance for Audited Media.
American Media was very, very leveraged and repeatedly found itself on the brink, Pecker told the Toronto Star in 2016. Pecker managed the companys financial straits by broadening American Medias portfolio in recent years, buying magazines such as Us Weekly and In Touch. He has also relied on the support of Anthony Melchiorre, who controls the $4 billion hedge fund Chatham Asset Management, which holds an 80 percent stake in the Enquirers parent company.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/national-enquirer-expected-to-be-sold-imminently-as-parent-company-faces-pressure/2019/04/10/07bb2d88-5ba5-11e9-9625-01d48d50ef75_story.html
mitch96
(13,816 posts)They could launder a lot of money thru that publication....
m
Delmette2.0
(4,141 posts)He knows how to run a newspaper.
delisen
(6,039 posts)erronis
(14,942 posts)Only fools pay taxes.
tikka
(757 posts)cstanleytech
(26,080 posts)BumRushDaShow
(127,279 posts)I was in the supermarket yesterday and saw a rack with that tabloid rag at the checkout counter. But someone had already stuck some kind of translucent plastic "divider" on top of the copies so they were no longer overtly visible. I know quite a few people, including some on DU, who flip them around if they see them in the store.
ToxMarz
(2,154 posts)let them waste their money putting them out, no one buys them (or goes searching for them). They get their message out sitting on the stands.
More_Cowbell
(2,190 posts)BigmanPigman
(51,430 posts)This was not based on morals and integrity but the almighty dollar.
BumRushDaShow
(127,279 posts)the bottom line.
As the GOP always likes to spout - "Let the 'free market' decide".
PSPS
(13,512 posts)marble falls
(56,358 posts)BumRushDaShow
(127,279 posts)Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(107,063 posts)BlueIdaho
(13,582 posts)First - hand over all the dirty little secrets to the M$M and Nancy Pelosi. Second - close it and destroy all assets.
BumRushDaShow
(127,279 posts)that I think I heard they have....
DeminPennswoods
(15,246 posts)but I wonder if Murdoch will make a bid for it.
jmowreader
(50,447 posts)Second should be a year-long expose of the GOP. They could start by serializing the Mueller Report.
BlueIdaho
(13,582 posts)Maxheader
(4,366 posts)An honest reputable news rag...while it made them money...
BumRushDaShow
(127,279 posts)make them enough money so they are saying "Next!".