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This
page considers US tabloid publisher American Media Inc
(AMI).
It covers -
introduction
Boca Raton-based American Media Inc (AMI) publishes
six of the US largest circulation weeklies, including
the National Enquirer and Star - famed
for headlines such as "Mom Boils Baby and Eats It",
Miss America in Weird Cult - Brainwashed Members Even
'Baa' Like Sheep," "Dolly's Breasts are Killing
Her," "Madonna Stole My Lesbian Lover".
Most distribution is from supermarkets.
The waves of cash from trash about alien visitations,
cute puppies, horoscopes and "personality journalism"
treats have enabled acquisition of health and fitness
magazine publisher Weider Publications, with imprints
that include Men's Fitness, Muscle &
Fitness Hers, Natural Health and Fit
Pregnancy.
Other AMI titles include country music magazine Country
Weekly, Latino entertainment magazines ¡Mira!
and Thalia, and auto magazines AMI's Auto
World and NOPI Street Performance Compact.
The group has around 200 'mini-mags' covering family,
finance, food, diet, health, home, pets and relationships.
Its holdings include Distribution Services, Inc., an in-store
magazine merchandising company. AMI has a small book division.
AMI traces its history to the New York Enquirer,
acquired by the zany Generoso (Gene) Pope Jr (1927-88)
in 1952 for US$75,000. Pope's father (1891-1950) was a
political powerbroker and quarry magnate whose Italian-American
newspaper interests included the Correire d'America
and daily Il Progresso Italo-Americano. He had
also acquired New York radio station WHOM from Gardner
Cowles in 1946.
The Enquirer purchase was supposedly assisted
with a loan from crime figure Frank Costello. An FBI report
on Pope Jr drily notes that he was dining with Costello
at the Monsignore Restaurant when the latter was shot
to death. In 1954 Pope revamped the format from a broadsheet
to a tabloid, renaming it the National Enquirer
Pope ramped up circulation in competition with exploitationist
publishers such as Bernarr MacFadden,
a character almost as strange as Pope. He moved the Enquirer
to Florida in 1971, moving away from unashamed gore to
'exposes' as part of a shift from newstand to supermarket
distribution. He died in 1988. American Media (which included
The Enquirer, Weekly World News, Star and magazine
distributor Distribution Services) was auctioned to a
joint venture between Macfadden
Publishing and Boston Ventures for US$412 million.
Macfadden control resulted in a significant increase in
cash flow (from US$18 million pa in 1989 to US$96 million
in 1999) and launch of new titles, such as Soap Opera
News and Country Weekly. Lagging circulation
saw sale to Evercore
Partners (a New York-based private equity investor headed
by Roger Altman and Austin Beutner) and former Hachette
executive David Peck.
AMI subsequently acquired competitor Globe Communications
Corp. and the publishing assets of Globe International
Inc for US$105 million, followed by health & fitness
publisher Weider. The Globe deal included Globe Marketing
Services, the Globe, National Examiner, Sun,
Mini Mags and Lifestyle Specials, Cracked and
The Detective series).
holdings
Holdings include
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National Enquirer
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Star
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The Globe
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National Examiner
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Weekly World News
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Country Weekly
- ¡Mira!
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Thalia
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AMI's Auto World
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NOPI Street Performance Compact
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MPH (Maximum Performance Horsepower)
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Shape
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Shape En Espanol
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Men's Fitness
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Fit Pregnancy
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Flex
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Natural Health
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Muscle & Fitness
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Muscle & Fitness Hers
studies
For the Enquirer see Iain Calder's memoir The
Untold Story: My 20 Years Running The National Enquirer
(New York: Miramax 2004).
Other works include George Bernard's Inside The National
Inquirer (Port Washington: Ashley 1977), I Watched
A Wild Hog Eat My Baby! - A Colorful History of Tabloids
and Their Cultural Impact (Amherst: Prometheus 2001)
by Bill Sloan, For Enquiring Minds: A Cultural Study
of Supermarket Tabloids (Knoxville: Uni of Tennessee
Press 1999) by Elizabeth Bird and the deliciously neomarxist
Grossed-Out Surgeon Vomits Inside Patient! An Insider's
Look at Supermarket Tabloids (Venice: Feral House
1997) by Jim Hogshire.
Context is provided by Jeannette Walls' Dish: How Gossip
Became The News & The News Became Just Another Show
(New York: Perennial 2000), Scandal: A Scurrilous History
of Gossip (New York: Atlantic 2002) by Roger Wilkes,
Scorpion Tongues: Gossip, Celebrity, and American Politics
(New York: Morrow 1998) by Gailand Collins, Media Scandals:
Morality & Desire in the Popular Culture Marketplace
(New York: Columbia Uni Press 1998) edited by James Lull
& Stephen Hinerman and How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered
the World (London: Fourth Estate 2004) by Francis
Wheen. There is a shorter but more thoughtful account
in Tabloid Journalism & the Public Sphere (txt)
by Anna Maria Jönsson & Henrik Örnebring.
Tabloid Journalism: An Annotated Bibliography of English-language
Sources (Westport: Greenwood 1996) by Gerald Greenberg
is of particular value.
Other insider accounts include Scooped! (New York:
Columbia Uni Press 1999) by David Krajicek, and Sally
Taylor's interviews in Shock! Horror!: the Tabloids
in Action (London: Bantam 1991).
landmarks
Context is provided by the broader communications and
media timeline on this site.
1946 Generoso Pope buys New York station WHOM from Gardner
Cowles' Atlantic Broadcasting
1952 Generoso Pope Jr acquires New York Enquirer,
founds American Media Inc
1954 Joe Azaria and John Vader publish tabloid Midnight,
precursor of the Globe
1974 Murdoch fails to acquire
Enquirer, launches National Star in
competition
1975 Pope sells WHOM to San Juan Racing Association
1979 launch of Weekly World News
1988 AMI auctioned to MacFadden
and Boston Ventures joint venture on death of Generoso
Pope
1999 AMI ceases Soap Opera News and Soap
Opera Magazine
1999 David Pecker and Evercore
Partners acquire AMI for US$850m
1999 AMI pays US$105m for Globe Communications Corp. and
the publishing assets of Globe International Inc (including
the Globe and National Examiner)
2002 AMI begins book publishing
2003 AM buys Weider Publications
for US$350m
2003 recapitalisation of AMI by Pecker, Evercore and Thomas
H. Lee Partners, L.P.
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