The National Enquirer, President Trump’s favorite supermarket tabloid, is about to have a new owner: James Cohen, a son of the founder of the Hudson News franchise. American Media Inc., the Enquirer’s publisher, announced the deal Thursday.
The money-losing title was put up for sale several weeks ago, after its principal owner no longer wanted to be associated with the magazine, which attracted the attention of federal investigators for its role in the 2016 presidential campaign, according to several people familiar with the matter.
American Media had been in talks with several potential buyers, including the California billionaire Ron Burkle, but those talks fell apart last week. Since then, Mr. Cohen, whose father started the chain of Hudson News shops, swooped in to purchase the troubled tabloid.
American Media, led by David J. Pecker, a longtime friend of Mr. Trump’s, has also agreed to sell the Globe and the National Examiner as part of the deal with Mr. Cohen. The Washington Post first reported on the sale, which it pegged at $100 million.
The principal owner of American Media, the hedge fund Chatham Asset Management, led by Anthony Melchiorre, pushed Mr. Pecker to sell the tabloid after it found itself in the cross hairs of a federal investigation. Mr. Melchiorre no longer saw an upside in being associated with The Enquirer, and the tabloid’s financial losses and falling circulation numbers provided further motivation for a sale.
Mr. Pecker is said to have helped Mr. Trump’s candidacy through American Media’s deal to buy a story from Karen McDougal, a Playboy model who said she had an affair with the president. The company acquired it for $150,000 and never published it, following a practice known in the tabloid business as catch-and-kill. Federal prosecutors from the Southern District of New York gave Mr. Pecker an immunity deal in its investigation of the arrangement.
American Media also signed a non-prosecution deal with federal prosecutors. As part of the agreement, the company affirmed that it had made the payment to Ms. McDougal to “influence the election.” The deal, signed in September, also stipulated that American Media “shall commit no crimes whatsoever” for three years and that, if it did, the company “shall thereafter be subject to prosecution for any federal criminal violation of which this office has knowledge.”
That agreement has put American Media in a difficult position, now that federal prosecutors have started investigating claims by Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, that he was threatened by the company. Mr. Bezos, the subject of an 11-page Enquirer investigation in January, accused American Media of extortion in a blog post.
Hudson News, founded by the Mr. Cohen’s father, Robert B. Cohen, was sold to the Swiss retail company Dufry in 2008. Mr. Cohen is no longer involved in the business but sits on the board of the new parent company.
This story will be updated.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/18/business/media/national-enquirer-james-cohen-hudson-news.html
2019-04-18 19:43:15Z
CAIiEGvdLTcjOzR1fg2xKGGGtFoqFwgEKg8IACoHCAowjuuKAzCWrzww9oAY
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar