National Enquirer Takes A Hit In Circulation
Source: Talking Points Memo/AP
By JEFF HORWITZ,
August 30, 2018 6:59 am
WASHINGTON (AP) The National Enquirer has long explained its support for Donald Trump as a business decision based on the presidents popularity among its readers. But private financial documents and circulation figures obtained by The Associated Press show that the tabloids business was declining even as it published stories attacking Trumps political foes and, prosecutors claim, helped suppress stories about his alleged sexual affairs.
The Enquirers privately held parent company, American Media Inc., lost $72 million for the year ending in March, the records obtained by the AP show. And despite AMI chairman David Peckers claims that the Enquirers heavy focus on Trump sells magazines, the documents show that the Enquirers average weekly circulation fell by 18 percent to 265,000 in its 2018 fiscal year from the same period the year before the greatest percentage loss of any AMI-owned publication. The slide follows the Enquirers 15 percent circulation loss for the previous 12 months, a span that included the presidential election.
More broadly, the documents obtained by the AP show that American Media isnt making enough money to cover the interest accruing on its $882 million in long-term debt and that the company expects continued declines in circulation and advertising revenues in the current year. That leaves AMI reliant on debt to keep its operations afloat and finance a string of recent acquisitions that are transforming the tabloid news industry.
That creditor backstopping AMI is a New Jersey investment fund called Chatham Asset Management. Its top executive dined with Pecker and Trump at the White House last year, and the fund has both a history of Republican political donations and ties to the administration of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, which awarded it hundreds of millions of dollars in state retirement funds to manage.
Read more: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/national-enquirer-takes-a-hit-in-circulation
Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)rurallib
(62,483 posts)titaniumsalute
(4,742 posts)7962
(11,841 posts)And do it every week. Sad, but probably not far from accurate.
mwooldri
(10,303 posts)Every time I go through the checkout, I flip an Enquirer. No need to look at the front of the "publication".
SergeStorms
(19,205 posts)I go a little further though. I tear the front page of every copy I can (only if no one is watching). It doesn't hurt the store or the distributor, but the Enquirer get those back and sucks up the losses. The same goes for books written by any right-wing doorknob. Dust jackets are fair game.
Bengus81
(6,939 posts)PatSeg
(47,770 posts)They should have stayed out of politics, it is costing them a fortune.
We may actually be seeing the end of the National Enquirer once and for all. 265,000 readers a week isn't a lot of people.
SergeStorms
(19,205 posts)Batboy, Aliens and such. My daughter used to love them when she was a child, and I must confess to getting a chuckle out of them myself. Stupid stories, and no one gets hurt. The National Enquirer starts out with the intention of hurting someone. Namely Hillary, or the Clintons in general, for the past three decades or so. Fascist assholes.
Turbineguy
(37,420 posts)twins raised by wolves.
rurallib
(62,483 posts)haven't opened the cover of one of these rags since I was a junior in high school a half a century ago.
Snellius
(6,881 posts)... and canned Spam. And NE will make a fortune.
UpInArms
(51,295 posts)...
Among Chathams largest investors, according to public records, is New Jerseys public pension fund. Chatham manages investment decisions for more than $300 million in pension holdings for the state.
SergeStorms
(19,205 posts)People's retirement depending upon the success of the Republican party. Let that sink in for a bit.
UpInArms
(51,295 posts)Putting the risk on the many for the gain of the chosen few
Sherman A1
(38,958 posts)1). Printed Material sales have been declining for a very long time as more and more folks move to electronic offerings, social media and websites for their news, be that the real or imagined types.
2). With the advent of Trump and his ilk on the scene it simply has to be more and more difficult to come up with stories and filler that are more bizarre than what we see daily on cable or from the main stream media sources. Personally I can't imagine things getting wackier, but they seem to do so on a daily basis.
Just my opinions.....
Good thoughts (in my humble opinion)
Sherman A1
(38,958 posts)lunatica
(53,410 posts)covering the space aliens and the grisliest crimes in the world. People are getting tired of Hillarys emails all the time. Thats not interesting and never was.
Sherman A1
(38,958 posts)Elvis on the Moon and I really miss Monkey Boy, but that was The Weekly World News in glorious B&W!
dembotoz
(16,866 posts)marble falls
(57,540 posts)lastlib
(23,388 posts)I know--asbestos! (It'll be healthier for the bird--and me!)
smb
(3,479 posts)...start dropping the tawdry Trump trash, drip by drip over each issue for the next couple of months. Get enough hot stuff out there by... oh, let's say "early November" for a target date... and you're sure to drum up plenty of interest!
unblock
(52,503 posts)very often, evil businesses insist that racist, bigoted, sexist, homophobic, or just plain right-wing crap helps their business.
aside from the fact that we shouldn't accept evil behavior just because someone makes a profit from it, it's always simply assumed that these business people are actually correct in their assertions that hate is profitable.
very often, they're simply dooming their business to a niche market, forever alienating at least as many people as they may be temporarily attracting.
elmac
(4,642 posts)because its main purpose was to spread fascist views, Murdoch did this to Australia and is doing the same here. The fraud street journal is another one he owns.
Media owners aren't in business to make money, they are supporting propaganda outlets that generate political support for their wealth. They will continue to pump funds into money losing media.
LittleGirl
(8,292 posts)or lose their jobs because of shut downs, how are they going to afford these rags?
Initech
(100,149 posts)matt819
(10,749 posts)if the large grocery store chains simply stopped carrying AMI publications. True, that would reduce reading material while waiting on line, but I can live with that.
FakeNoose
(32,917 posts)...and that will be the end of all those trashy magazines. I'm sure somebody is working out the income streams and the profit potential right now.
The cashier lines already have cooties now with the tabloids oozing skin crawling silent screaming banshee headlines! To have it all accompanied by audio would be like a trek through Dantes Inferno!
B Stieg
(2,410 posts)which will soon be extinct.
And what a day it will be when Americans are no longer attracted by stories about alien impregnation.
Sneederbunk
(14,319 posts)lunatica
(53,410 posts)Me.
(35,454 posts)sarcasmo
(23,968 posts)SWBTATTReg
(22,222 posts)People aren't interested in one-sided trash stories...so obviously biased that it is pathetic. Sad!
olddad56
(5,732 posts)it is sort of hard to feel sorry for them. They obliviously aren't in business to make money.