Fake News and Failed Friendships : An Analysis of Trump , Pecker , and the National Enquirer
The Enquirer is overpriced in a competitive marketplace . At the beginning of 2018 , the scandal sheet had a weekly circulation of 260,000 copies , a 13 % drop from the previous 6-month average , according to the publisher data provided to the Alliance for Audited Media ( Rutenberg Investigator para . 12 ).
The future was obvious in turning around troubled media companies : restructure through bankruptcy , slash staff , and force each member of those remaining do the work of three or four people . Amy Wicks , a reporter for Women ’ s Wear Daily quoted Pecker as saying . “ We encourage accountability and aggressive reporting , and if you make a mistake , that ’ s OK .” Colleagues added , “ If you succeed you get credit , if you fail , it can get ugly ” ( Wicks para . 7 ).
The lurid headlines of the National Enquirer attracted the attention of shoppers in one Florida supermarket , Publix . It found the covers so offensive , and they ordered them covered ( Sorentrue 1 ). A tabloid headline focuses on who did what , forsaking the why for development in the story itself . Every cover features a picture , a headline telling the story as unambiguously as possible , and a sub-headline called the money line . The May 7 , 2018 , edition of the Enquirer featured the stern visage of President Trump . The main headline read “ Trump Fixer ’ s Secrets and Lies ” ( 1 ). The money line developed a favorite theme of the tabloid , “ Payoffs & Threats Exposed .” An analysis of the story showed that there were seven individual stories , each with its own sub-headline . Each story had a different slant , on Cohen , the president ’ s personal lawyer . Of the seven stories , six were less than 100 words long ( 16 ).
Pecker devised a proprietary database of the covers of all celebrity magazines , including those of his competitors , called
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