Sale of National Enquirer: Newsstand mogul James Cohen to buy tabloid | Media



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The owners of National Enquirer reached an agreement to sell the tabloid, after triggering a scandal with the controversial tactics they used to suppress the detrimental stories to Donald Trump.

American Media – led by CEO David Pecker, Trump's long-time friend – will sell the Enquirer and his other two tabloids to James Cohen, owner of Hudson News's newsstand chain. announced these companies in a statement.

The National Enquirer is a supermarket tabloid known for a long time for its salacious stories about celebrities and politicians, and more recently for the intimate relationship of its owners with Trump.

American Media has admitted paying $ 150,000 to a former Playboy model to keep quiet about his alleged affair with Trump.

The company paid Karen McDougal her rights over her story and never published it – a tactic known as "catch and kill" that she used for embarrassing stories involving Trump and D & # 39; 39, other privileged celebrities.

Federal prosecutors agreed not to sue American Media in exchange for its cooperation in the payment investigation, which amounted to an illegal campaign contribution. Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to his role in the ploy.

The purchase price was $ 100 million for Enquirer, the Globe and the National Examiner, the Washington Post reported.

"The sale of these brands shows their vitality in today's newsstand market," said Pecker.

The company is in debt and said the sale would reduce its debt to $ 355 million.

The Enquirer was involved in another controversy when Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos accused his extortion editor of threatening to publish explicit photos and text messages with his mistress.

Bezos had hired a private security firm to investigate after Enquirer published other text messages. He said he threatened to publish the new material unless he publicly states that the tabloid reports were not politically motivated.

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