The National Enquirer is an American tabloid newspaper. Founded in 1926,Los Angeles Magazine, September 1, 2004 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, Inc. (AMI) 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.
History 1926–1990s 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."Under the Nutmeg Tree." Stamford (CT) Daily Advocate, September 20, 1926, p. 4. 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 Enquirers 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.Under Cover, p. 246, by John Roy Carlson, (1943)
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 Enquirers 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 Enquirers 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.
2000s Anthrax attack In 2001 in Boca Raton, Florida, Bob Stevens—a photo editor at Sun, a sister publication under the National Enquirers parent company AMI—was exposed to a letter with anthrax spores and became the first person to die as a result of the 2001 anthrax attacks. The entire AMI office complex in Boca Raton was closed down and remained fenced off for two years after the attack; AMI moved its headquarters to another building in Boca Raton.
John Edwards story After the National Enquirer, led by editor-in-chief David Perel, investigated John Edwards for 18 months it proved that he was having an affair with Rielle Hunter. The Enquirer followed with exclusives including a photo of Hunter pregnant. In August 2008, in an interview with ABC News, former presidential candidate John Edwards admitted to having an extramarital affair with Rielle Hunter but denied fathering her child. Edwards had made false denials of the affair which was first reported by the National Enquirer. In October 2007, the publication ran a story about the 2006 affair with Hunter, a filmmaker hired by the Edwards political team, although Edwards dismissed the story as "completely untrue, ridiculous" and "false." In July 2008, the publication ran an article claiming to have caught the former North Carolina senator visiting Hunter and their alleged illegitimate child at a hotel in Los Angeles. Fox News interviewed an unnamed security guard who claimed to have witnessed a confrontation between Edwards and the tabloid's members of staff. Edwards later admitted that he was the father of Hunter's child, after the Enquirer ran a photo of Edwards with the baby.
In 2010, there was speculation that the Enquirer might receive a Pulitzer Prize for its investigation of Edwards. Donald Trump said that the paper should be "respected" for its investigation, and questioned why it was not given the award. The San Francisco Examiner wrote, "It galls most mainstream newspaper editors that a tawdry tabloid could be considered for their most vaunted prize. It's like nominating a porn flick for an Oscar."Editors (February 21, 2010) "National Enquirer could get Pulitzer Prize for breaking John Edwards affair story." San Francisco Examiner.
Sarah Palin story The National Enquirer claimed to have an exclusive account of the pregnancy of Bristol Palin, the daughter of Sarah Palin, then governor of Alaska and Republican candidate for vice president in the 2008 election:
The title published an allegation that Palin had an affair with her husband's business partner, Brad Hanson. Answering John McCain's threat of a lawsuit, a spokesman for the National Enquirer, in a statement to The Huffington Post, declared:
Murder of Ennis Cosby
The Enquirer offered a $100,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of the person who murdered Ennis Cosby, son of Bill Cosby. The paper received a credible tip, which it passed along to LAPD, which converted the tip into an arrest and conviction. David Perel's coverage of the O.J. Simpson case was referred to by The New York Times as the "bible of the case." Perel was editor in chief when the paper's investigative unit, formed under him, discovered and published that Jesse Jackson had fathered a love child during his marriage. In the Cosby case, the LA police, at a press conference, credited the Enquirer with solving the case, saying: "We have just arrested a suspect for the murder of Ennis Cosby going on information we are very confident about and this is in great part due to help from The National Enquirer." David Perel was again the Enquirer editor responsible for offering reward money that led to police solving the murder.
2010s Ted Cruz and Donald Trump The National Enquirer enthusiastically endorsed Donald Trump for the 2016 presidential election and published numerous stories promoting his candidacy and denigrating his opponents. During the Republican presidential primaries in March 2016, the title ran a story alleging that "political operatives" were investigating whether candidate Ted Cruz, a U.S. senator from Texas, engaged in extramarital affairs.Hopper, Jessica. "Cruz Blames 'Sleazy Donald' for National Enquirer Report" , ABC News (March 25, 2016).Hillyard, Vaughn and Rafferty, Andrew. "Ted Cruz Calls Tabloid Report on Alleged Affairs 'Garbage'" , NBC News (March 25, 2016). Cruz denied it and said that Trump had used his connections to persuade the Enquirer to publish the story. Trump denied involvement.Gaudino, Nicole. "Ted Cruz blames Donald Trump for 'Enquirer' affairs story" , USA Today (March 25, 2016).