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National Enquirer
The National Enquirer is an American tabloid newspaper. Founded in 1926, the newspaper has undergone a number of changes over the years. The National Enquirer openly acknowledges that it pays sources for tips (checkbook journalism), a common practice in tabloid journalism that results in conflicts of interest. It has also been embroiled in several controversies related to its catch and kill practices and allegations of blackmail. It has struggled with declining circulation figures because of competition from other glossy tabloid publications.
In May 2014, American Media announced a decision to shift the headquarters of the National Enquirer from Florida, where it had been located since 1971, back to New York City, where it originally began as The New York Enquirer in 1926. On April 10, 2019, Chatham Asset Management, which had acquired control of 80 percent of AMI's stock, forced AMI to sell the National Enquirer. On April 18, 2019, AMI agreed to sell the National Enquirer to Hudson Group. Pending bankruptcy, Chatham would again become the majority shareholder of the paper.[dubious – discuss]
In 1926, William Griffin, a protégé of William Randolph Hearst, founded the paper as The New York Evening Enquirer, a Sunday afternoon broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout New York City, using money lent to Griffin by Hearst. It made its debut on September 19, 1926. As partial payment of his loan, Hearst asked Griffin to use the Enquirer as a proving ground for new ideas. Hearst took the ideas that worked in his successful publications; the less successful ideas stayed with the Enquirer, and as a result the Enquirer's sales never soared. During the 1930s and 1940s, it became a voice for isolationism and pro-fascist propaganda. The paper was indicted along with Griffin under the Smith Act for sedition by a grand jury in 1942 for subverting the morale of US troops through Griffin's editorials against US military involvement in World War II. The charges were later dropped.
By 1952, three years after Griffin's death, the paper's circulation had fallen to 17,000 copies a week; it was then purchased by Generoso Pope Jr., the son of Generoso Pope, the founder of Il Progresso, New York's Italian language daily newspaper. Pope's son Paul alleged that Luciano crime family boss Frank Costello provided Pope the money for the purchase in exchange for the Enquirer's promise to list lottery numbers and to refrain from any mention of Mafia activities.
In 1953, Pope revamped the format from a broadsheet to a sensationalist tabloid. The paper's editorial content became so salacious that New York Mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr. forced Pope to resign from the city's Board of Higher Education in 1954. In 1957, Pope changed the name of the newspaper to The National Enquirer and changed its scope to national stories of sex and scandal. Pope worked tirelessly in the 1950s and 1960s to increase the circulation and broaden the tabloid's appeal. In the late 1950s and through most of the 1960s, the publication was known for its gory and unsettling headlines and stories such as: "I Cut Out Her Heart and Stomped on It" (September 8, 1963) and "Mom Boiled Her Baby and Ate Her" (1962). At this time the paper was sold on newsstands and in drugstores only. Pope stated he got the idea for the format and these gory stories from seeing people congregate around auto accidents. By 1966, circulation had risen to one million.
Pope pioneered the practice of selling magazines at supermarket checkouts. To gain access to the supermarkets, Pope completely changed the format of the paper in late 1967 by dropping all the gore and violence to focus on more benign topics like celebrities, the occult and UFOs. In 1971, Pope moved the headquarters from New York to Lantana, Florida. In 1974, The National Enquirer began running Bill Hoest's Bumper Snickers, a cartoon series about cars and drivers, collected by Signet into a paperback reprint two years later. The death of Elvis Presley was the first show business news story that provided the Enquirer with ongoing opportunities to investigate offshoots of the breaking story, as luridly documented in the tabloid's own in house news sheet The Post Script. Items that followed up on Presley's death included a color photograph of his body in an open coffin, a description of nine-year-old Lisa Presley's shock and grief over the loss of her father and reports of his pharmaceutical drug abuse, autopsy results and malpractice claims against the doctor who had supplied him with the drugs. These reports appeared in nearly every issue of the Enquirer for more than two years.
During most of the 1970s and 1980s, The National Enquirer sponsored the placement of the largest decorated Christmas tree in the world at its Lantana, Florida headquarters in what became an annual tradition. A tree was shipped in mid-autumn from the Pacific Northwest by rail and off-loaded by crane onto the adjacent base of The National Enquirer property. Every night during the Christmas season, thousands of visitors would come to see the tree. This would grow into one of South Florida's most celebrated and spectacular events. Although tremendously expensive, this was Pope's "Pet Project" and his "Christmas present" to the local community. The tradition ended when he died in 1988. By this time, The National Enquirer's parent company American Media had acquired publications and companies including Weekly World News, and Distribution Services, Inc. The surviving owners, including Pope's widow, Lois, sold the company to a partnership of Macfadden Publishing and Boston Ventures for $412 million. Soon after, the company bought the publication's main competition, Star magazine, from Rupert Murdoch. The combined interests were controlled by a newly formed company, American Media Inc (AMI). In 1999, the paper relocated south again, but this time only 15 miles to Boca Raton, Florida.
In 2001 in Boca Raton, Florida, Bob Stevens—a photo editor at Sun, a sister publication under the National Enquirer's parent company, AMI—was exposed to a letter with anthrax spores and was the first person to die as a result of the 2001 anthrax attacks. The entire AMI office complex in Boca Raton was closed, and remained fenced off for two years after the attack; AMI moved its headquarters to another building in Boca Raton.
National Enquirer
The National Enquirer is an American tabloid newspaper. Founded in 1926, the newspaper has undergone a number of changes over the years. The National Enquirer openly acknowledges that it pays sources for tips (checkbook journalism), a common practice in tabloid journalism that results in conflicts of interest. It has also been embroiled in several controversies related to its catch and kill practices and allegations of blackmail. It has struggled with declining circulation figures because of competition from other glossy tabloid publications.
In May 2014, American Media announced a decision to shift the headquarters of the National Enquirer from Florida, where it had been located since 1971, back to New York City, where it originally began as The New York Enquirer in 1926. On April 10, 2019, Chatham Asset Management, which had acquired control of 80 percent of AMI's stock, forced AMI to sell the National Enquirer. On April 18, 2019, AMI agreed to sell the National Enquirer to Hudson Group. Pending bankruptcy, Chatham would again become the majority shareholder of the paper.[dubious – discuss]
In 1926, William Griffin, a protégé of William Randolph Hearst, founded the paper as The New York Evening Enquirer, a Sunday afternoon broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout New York City, using money lent to Griffin by Hearst. It made its debut on September 19, 1926. As partial payment of his loan, Hearst asked Griffin to use the Enquirer as a proving ground for new ideas. Hearst took the ideas that worked in his successful publications; the less successful ideas stayed with the Enquirer, and as a result the Enquirer's sales never soared. During the 1930s and 1940s, it became a voice for isolationism and pro-fascist propaganda. The paper was indicted along with Griffin under the Smith Act for sedition by a grand jury in 1942 for subverting the morale of US troops through Griffin's editorials against US military involvement in World War II. The charges were later dropped.
By 1952, three years after Griffin's death, the paper's circulation had fallen to 17,000 copies a week; it was then purchased by Generoso Pope Jr., the son of Generoso Pope, the founder of Il Progresso, New York's Italian language daily newspaper. Pope's son Paul alleged that Luciano crime family boss Frank Costello provided Pope the money for the purchase in exchange for the Enquirer's promise to list lottery numbers and to refrain from any mention of Mafia activities.
In 1953, Pope revamped the format from a broadsheet to a sensationalist tabloid. The paper's editorial content became so salacious that New York Mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr. forced Pope to resign from the city's Board of Higher Education in 1954. In 1957, Pope changed the name of the newspaper to The National Enquirer and changed its scope to national stories of sex and scandal. Pope worked tirelessly in the 1950s and 1960s to increase the circulation and broaden the tabloid's appeal. In the late 1950s and through most of the 1960s, the publication was known for its gory and unsettling headlines and stories such as: "I Cut Out Her Heart and Stomped on It" (September 8, 1963) and "Mom Boiled Her Baby and Ate Her" (1962). At this time the paper was sold on newsstands and in drugstores only. Pope stated he got the idea for the format and these gory stories from seeing people congregate around auto accidents. By 1966, circulation had risen to one million.
Pope pioneered the practice of selling magazines at supermarket checkouts. To gain access to the supermarkets, Pope completely changed the format of the paper in late 1967 by dropping all the gore and violence to focus on more benign topics like celebrities, the occult and UFOs. In 1971, Pope moved the headquarters from New York to Lantana, Florida. In 1974, The National Enquirer began running Bill Hoest's Bumper Snickers, a cartoon series about cars and drivers, collected by Signet into a paperback reprint two years later. The death of Elvis Presley was the first show business news story that provided the Enquirer with ongoing opportunities to investigate offshoots of the breaking story, as luridly documented in the tabloid's own in house news sheet The Post Script. Items that followed up on Presley's death included a color photograph of his body in an open coffin, a description of nine-year-old Lisa Presley's shock and grief over the loss of her father and reports of his pharmaceutical drug abuse, autopsy results and malpractice claims against the doctor who had supplied him with the drugs. These reports appeared in nearly every issue of the Enquirer for more than two years.
During most of the 1970s and 1980s, The National Enquirer sponsored the placement of the largest decorated Christmas tree in the world at its Lantana, Florida headquarters in what became an annual tradition. A tree was shipped in mid-autumn from the Pacific Northwest by rail and off-loaded by crane onto the adjacent base of The National Enquirer property. Every night during the Christmas season, thousands of visitors would come to see the tree. This would grow into one of South Florida's most celebrated and spectacular events. Although tremendously expensive, this was Pope's "Pet Project" and his "Christmas present" to the local community. The tradition ended when he died in 1988. By this time, The National Enquirer's parent company American Media had acquired publications and companies including Weekly World News, and Distribution Services, Inc. The surviving owners, including Pope's widow, Lois, sold the company to a partnership of Macfadden Publishing and Boston Ventures for $412 million. Soon after, the company bought the publication's main competition, Star magazine, from Rupert Murdoch. The combined interests were controlled by a newly formed company, American Media Inc (AMI). In 1999, the paper relocated south again, but this time only 15 miles to Boca Raton, Florida.
In 2001 in Boca Raton, Florida, Bob Stevens—a photo editor at Sun, a sister publication under the National Enquirer's parent company, AMI—was exposed to a letter with anthrax spores and was the first person to die as a result of the 2001 anthrax attacks. The entire AMI office complex in Boca Raton was closed, and remained fenced off for two years after the attack; AMI moved its headquarters to another building in Boca Raton.