For five years, the owner of The National Enquirer has been trying to find a buyer to get it off his back. But the repeated sales attempts have turned into a tabloid-worthy saga of their own.
The publication in question is once again in the spotlight due to the secret trial of former President Donald J. Trump, which focuses on the “catch and kill” practices that The National Enquirer implemented in an attempt to bolster Trump’s chances in the 2016 elections.
Trump, the first former US president to face criminal prosecution, is on trial in New York, accused of falsifying business records to cover up a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels, a porn actress, to keep her secrets from disclosure. accusations about their affair. the media. David Pecker, former editor of The Enquirer and a longtime friend of Trump, is the prosecution’s first witness and will testify again Thursday.
His testimony so far has detailed how involved The Enquirer was with the Trump campaign, a relationship that saw Pecker ousted and contributed to a tangle of aborted deals when its owner tried to get rid of him in recent years.
Pecker described in court this week how The Enquirer had worked with the Trump campaign to “catch and kill” potentially damaging stories about Trump paying sources in exchange for their silence. She said she had agreed to act as the campaign’s “eyes and ears” and squash unflattering stories while promoting articles critical of Trump’s opponents.
The Enquirer’s extreme style of checkbook journalism came to light in 2018 when its parent company, American Media Inc., reached a deal with Manhattan prosecutors to cooperate with an investigation into hush money payments in exchange for immunity in the case. The company admitted to making the payments and said it knew they violated campaign finance laws. (He paid a $187,000 fine to the Federal Election Commission for those violations.)
Founded in 1926 as a Sunday afternoon newspaper, The National Enquirer had transformed into a tabloid magazine in the 1950s and became known in subsequent decades for its sensational, exciting headlines and sordid stories. It published a photo on its cover of Elvis Presley in an open coffin and regularly published stories about gory crimes and the paranormal.
In 1999, Pecker was part of an investment group led by Evercore Partners that bought American Media, the parent company, for $294 million.
A New Jersey-based hedge fund, Chatham Asset Management, acquired American Media in 2014. Pecker stayed on and continued in his role as chairman, president and CEO of American Media, as well as publisher of The Enquirer. Shortly after, The Enquirer became involved with the Trump campaign.
When news of the tabloid’s tactics broke, Chatham Asset Management pressured Pecker to divest The Enquirer.
In April 2019, American Media announced that it would sell The Enquirer, along with some of its other tabloid brands, to James Cohen, son of the founder of the Hudson News franchise. The Washington Post reported at the time that the deal was worth $100 million. But months passed and the deal was never closed.
Pecker left the company in August 2020 when American Media merged with Accelerate360, a logistics company also controlled by Chatham Asset Management. It was renamed A360 Media.
Still looking to offload the tabloid, the parent company found another buyer. In February 2023, A360 Media announced that it had agreed to sell The Enquirer in an all-cash deal to VVIP Ventures, a joint venture between Vinco Ventures, a digital media company, and Icon Publishing, a new company created for the acquisition. The terms were not disclosed.
Within months, that deal collapsed spectacularly. One of the new buyers, Ted Farnsworth, was arrested in August after violating his bail conditions in a separate case: he was accused of defrauding investors in the movie theater subscription company MoviePass and remains in custody awaiting trial.
Vinco Ventures, once a publicly traded company, collapsed. A former Vinco Ventures spokesperson said in an email that he no longer represented the company.
And so The National Enquirer remains in the hands of A360Media, although its website avoids any mention of the tabloid. A spokesperson for A360Media did not respond to requests for comment.