Popular Culture Review 30.2
HISTORY OF THE NATIONAL ENQUIRER
William Griffin founded the New York Enquirer in 1926 . It cost 10 cents a copy and featured stories about horse races . Generoso ( Gene ) Pope Jr ., a graduate of MIT , bought the paper in 1953 , for $ 75,000 , reputedly with mob money ( Calder 55 ). He renamed the newspaper as The National Enquirer and extended its circulation to New York , New Jersey , and Connecticut and then nationally . He changed the format of the paper from an eight-column broadside to a tabloid , less than half the size . This innovation saved money on printing costs . Readers found the new format more convenient to read while traveling to work on the subway or bus . Pope had an uncanny ability to “ recognize what stories would sell and what kind of stories the average person wanted to read about ” ( Connolly para . 2 ). He focused on sex , gore , and crime stories . By the 1960s , his newspaper became a dominant tabloid , with a loyal fan base , strong financial cushion , and lucrative national distribution contracts .
Pope instituted practices still in use at the Enquirer . He authorized reporters to pay up to $ 2,500 for tips without prior authorization . He paid $ 18,000 for a picture of Elvis in a white suit lying in a copper coffin snapped by a distant teenage cousin ( Newsweek para . 14 ). He negotiated with celebrities to bury salacious stories in exchange for an interview , gossip about another famous person , or other favors . He paid his writers well and rewarded them with lavish bonuses for sensational scoops . Pope pressured reporters to produce . He established a grading system to assure the quality and quantity of their work . If writers did not measure up , he fired them .
Pope anticipated sociological changes in the 1950s and 60s . People moved to the suburbs . They no longer bought their
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