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American Media Inc. LLC (AMI) is selling the National Enquirer for $100 million to James Cohen, CEO of Hudson News.
The tabloid, along with two of its sister publications, — National Examiner and the Globe — is being sold off to the head of the popular travel retailer known for its airport newsstands because Anthony Melchiorre, the manager in charge of the hedge fund that owns AMI, “became disillusioned with the reporting tactics of the Enquirer,” the Washington Post reported.
AMI’s chairman and CEO, David Pecker, has been a longtime friend and confidant of President Donald Trump, who was, according to a lengthy report by The New Yorker in 2017, heavily favored by the National Enquirer in its election coverage and beyond.
American Media has since been under intense scrutiny because of the Enquirer’s allegedly pro-Trump “catch-and-kill” efforts on stories that were potentially damaging to the then-candidate’s campaign in 2016, the Post reported.
The sale of the National Enquirer expected to reduce AMI’s debt to $355 million. The publisher sought to refinance more than $400 million in debt this year as circulation of the Enquirer fell from an average of 516,000 copies per issue in 2014 to 218,000 copies in December 2018.
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