Suitors Emerge For The National Enquirer

A handful of rumored suitors have emerged as possible buyers for the National Enquirer now that David Pecker’s American Media Inc. officially put it on the block under pressure from principal investor Chatham Asset Management.

Four names have bubbled to the surface: Paul Pope, the son of the National Enquirer founder Generoso Pope Jr., billionaire Ron Burkle, Hudson News CEO James Cohen, and even chief AMI antagonist Jeff Bezos, the head of Amazon and also the owner of the Washington Post.

According to The NY Post, the most intriguing name to surface as a potential buyer — and the only to acknowledge publicly that he is in on the hunt — is Pope, who has hoped to one day regain control ever since the Pope estate sold it in 1989 for $412.5 million. But he’ll need help. He’s been estranged from his mother, Lois Pope, and his five siblings for years.

Pope has blasted the management style of Pecker for injecting a political agenda into its coverage.

“When we ran the National Enquirer, it was a lot more powerful than it is today, and that’s due largely to the way the paper is being run by an avid Trump friend and supporter,” Pope told Media Ink.

During its heyday, it was selling 5 million to 6 million copies a week. Today, the Enquirer and the two other smaller tabloids that AMI is selling — the National Examiner and the Globe — are estimated to be selling only several hundred thousand copies a week.

Burkle is a junior partner with AMI in its RadarOnline digital gossip site. The New York Times on Thursday said Burkle was in “deep negotiations” with AMI to buy the Enquirer.