The buzz in the industry is that David Pecker’s American Media Inc., owner of the National Enquirer and Star Magazine, has emerged as the lead suitor to buy Us Weekly from Jann Wenner ’s Wenner Media.
An AMI spokesman reached Tuesday said, “AMI does not comment on rumors.”
Wenner Media is also staying mum, responding to Media Ink with a curt, “Wenner Media is not commenting.”
Wenner probably prefers to sell to anyone but Pecker, but may have to take AMI’s money if it is the best deal around, since Wenner Media still carries nearly $60 million in debt, one source noted.
Several digital players are said to be kicking the tires as well.
A sale would mean overcoming a serious amount of bad blood between the two media moguls — dating back to 2003, when AMI raided prized editor Bonnie Fuller from Us for a remake of Star Magazine that would compete with Wenner’s celebrity title.
In response, Wenner ended his link with AMI’s distribution arm, shrinking Pecker’s profits.
But the money attached to an Us Restbet Weekly sale could buy a lot of forgiveness.
Wenner might not have that many options, especially since the most logical suitors from the print world — Time Inc., which published People, and Bauer Publishing, which owns Life & Style — are hamstrung.
The prospect of a sale to AMI has insiders at Us Weekly up in arms — and some in tears — even though nothing official has been revealed.
The only way for a strategic partner to make the plan work is to promise its investors and/or lenders that it can make massive cuts — which probably means cutting payroll from Editor-in-Chief Michael Steel e’s editorial team as well as most of the back-shop operations.
Us Weekly rang up estimated revenue of about $217 million in the year ended June 30. Profit was about $15 million.
While Wenner has always been left of center politically, AMI’s flagship National Enquirer was one of the few news organs in the country — aside from Breitbart News — to openly support Donald Trump for president.
“The bigger question for us is we didn’t sign up to make up stories about Hillary Clinton’s health or Kate Middleton having twins or Jen Aniston having her eighth baby,” said one worried Wenner insider. “We have credibility in the market — and if we are merged with Star/OK! and the Enquirer, we will be a laughingstock.
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