This article needs to be updated.(August 2021) |
a360media | |
Company type | Private |
Industry | Media |
Founded | 1936 |
Headquarters | New York City, U.S. [1] |
Key people | Anthony Melchiorre (owner) Roger Altman |
Products | Newspapers Magazines |
Owner | Chatham Asset Management Omega Charitable Partnership, L.P. |
Number of employees | 3,160 (2006) |
Website | americanmediainc |
A360 Media, LLC (branded a360media), formerly American Media, Inc. (AMI), is an American publisher of magazines, supermarket tabloids, and books based in New York City. Originally affiliated with only the National Enquirer , the media company's holdings expanded considerably in the 1990s and 2000s. In November 2010, American Media filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection due to debts of nearly $1 billion, but has continued to buy and sell magazine brands since then.
AMI has been in the news affiliated with accusations of catch and kill operations. On December 12, 2018, the U.S. Attorney's Office reported that AMI admitted to paying $150,000 to Karen McDougal in concert with Donald Trump's presidential campaign for the sole purpose of preventing damaging allegations prior to the 2016 US presidential election. [2] [3]
According to its September 2018 non-prosecution agreement with Southern District of New York federal prosecutors, AMI "shall commit no crimes whatsoever" for three years, otherwise "A.M.I. shall thereafter be subject to prosecution for any federal criminal violation of which this office has knowledge." [4]
On April 10, 2019, Chatham Asset Management, which controls 80 percent of AMI's stock, forced AMI to sell the National Enquirer. [5] [6] This came after Chatham owner Anthony Melchiorre, who AMI has also relied on for survival, expressed dismay over the tabloid magazine's recent scandals involving hush money assistance to U.S. president Donald Trump's 2016 campaign and blackmail of Jeff Bezos. [5] [6] On April 18, 2019, AMI agreed to sell not only the National Enquirer, but two of its other publications, Globe and National Examiner , to Hudson News Distributors. [7] [8]
In August 2020, Chatham Asset Management, AMI's owning holding company, announced it would merge AMI with Accelerate 360, a wholesale distribution company it also owned. As part of the merger, AMI was officially renamed A360 on October 1. [9]
In February 2023, A360media agreed to sell the National Enquirer to VVIP Ventures, a joint venture of the digital media company Vinco Ventures and a new company set up for the purchase, Icon Publishing. [10] As of July 7th, 2023 the deal has collapsed as reported by The Wall Street Journal. [11]
The modern American Media came into being after Generoso Pope Jr., longtime owner of the National Enquirer , died in 1988, and his tabloids came under new ownership. American tabloids began consolidating in 1990, when American Media bought Star from Rupert Murdoch. The purchase of Globe Communications (owner of the Globe and the National Examiner ) followed nine years later. [12] Roger Altman, through Evercore Partners, bought a controlling stake in American Media in 1999. [13]
American Media is not to be confused with American Media Distribution, the international news coverage firm. American Media's former corporate headquarters in Boca Raton, Florida, figured prominently in news headlines in late 2001, after an anthrax attack was perpetrated on the company [14] and other media outlets. [15] Since then the corporate headquarters have moved to New York City at 1 Park Avenue in Manhattan, before moving to the Financial District to the former JP Morgan Chase headquarters at 4 New York Plaza. That building was severely damaged by Hurricane Sandy but reopened in February 2013.
AMI continued to expand after it bought Joe Weider's Weider Publications in 2002. Joe Weider continued to manage control of his magazines under AMI's Weider Publications subsidiary until his death in March 2013. [16] [17]
American Media also owns Distribution Services, an in-store magazine merchandising company. In fall 2002, it launched the book-publishing imprint, AMI Books. [18]
In 2009, American Media was taken over by its bondholders to keep it out of bankruptcy. [19]
In November 2010, American Media filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection due to nearly $1 billion in debt, and assets of less than $50,000. [20] Its subsidiary, American Media Operations Inc., listed assets of $100 to $500 million and debt of over $1 billion. [21] It exited in December.
In May 2014, American Media announced a decision to shift the headquarters of the National Enquirer from Florida, where it had been located since 1971, back to New York City, where it originally began as The New York Enquirer in 1926. [22] In August 2014, American Media was acquired by Chatham Asset Management and Omega Charitable Partnership. [23]
In 2015, American Media sold Shape , Natural Health, and Fit Pregnancy to Meredith. [24]
In 2016, Pecker revealed to the Toronto Star that AMI now relied on support from Chatham Asset Management and its owner Anthony Melchiorre. [25] [6] The $4 billion hedge fund owns 80 percent of AMI's stock. [6]
In March 2017, American Media acquired Us Weekly from Wenner Media for a reported $100 million. [26] Three months later, in June 2017, American Media also acquired Men's Journal from Wenner Media. [27]
In June 2018, American Media acquired 13 brands from Bauer Media Group including In Touch Weekly , Life & Style and Closer to add to their celebrity portfolio. They also acquired Bauer Media's kids group including J-14 and Girl's World. [28]
In February 2019, American Media acquired TEN's adventure sports properties. [29]
In April 2019, the National Enquirer was reported to be up for sale and likely to be sold within days. The company stated that it had shifted its emphasis away from tabloids to its "glossy" magazines such as Us Weekly and Men's Journal . [30] This came following pressure from Chatham owner Anthony Melchiorre, who expressed disapproval of the Enquirer's style of journalism. [6] [5] On April 18, 2019, AMI accepted an offer from Hudson News Distributors head James Cohen and agreed to sell not only the National Enquirer, but also Globe and The Examiner to Hudson News Distributors for $100 million. [7] [8] At the time the sales were announced, AMI was approximately $355 million in debt. [31]
In 2022, A360 acquired single issue magazine publisher Centennial Media. [32] Also in 2022, A360 sold Men's Journal and the Adventure Sports Network properties to The Arena Group. [33]
On April 22, 2024, Pecker acknowledged that the National Enquirer engaged in a practice of checkbook journalism which involved paying sources for stories, and that he "gave a number to the editors that they could not spend more than $10,000" and he had final say over celebrity stories. [34] [35] He also acknowledged that "checkbook journalism" served as part of the editorial philosophy he followed when ran American Media Inc. [35] [34] Pecker stated that he believed that “The only thing that is important is the cover of a magazine.” [35]
In late 2015, AMI paid $30,000 to Dino Sajudin, a doorman at Trump Tower, to obtain the rights to his story in which he alleged Donald Trump had an affair in the 1980s that resulted in the birth of a child. Sajudin in April 2018 identified the woman as Trump's former housekeeper. [36] AMI reporters were given the names of the woman and the alleged child, while Sajudin passed a lie detector test when testifying that he had heard the story from others. Shortly after the payment was made, Pecker ordered the reporters to drop the story. [37] In April 2018, AMI chief content officer Dylan Howard denied the story was "spiked" in a so-called "catch and kill" operation, insisting that AMI did not run the story because Sajudin's story lacked credibility. [38] On August 24, 2018, after AMI had released Sajudin from the contract, CNN obtained a copy of it and published excerpts. The contract instructed Sajudin to provide "information regarding Donald Trump's illegitimate child," but did not contain further specifics of Sajudin's story. [39]
In April 2024, Pecker testified in Trump's New York criminal trial how the story was his first "catch-and-kill" target during Trump's campaign, with Sajudin also attempting to claim that the child was a girl. [40] A National Enquirer editor who discovered the allegation originally did not know Sajudin's name, but just as a doorman who had worked at Trump. [40] Cohen was the one who discovered the names of the doorman and the alleged maid. [40] Though Cohen at first claimed the story was not true, the National Enquirer acquired the story for $30,000, which was noticeably higher than the usual $10,000 they paid for stories. [40]
In 2016, AMI paid Playboy model Karen McDougal $150,000 for exclusive rights to her allegations of a ten-month affair with Donald Trump—which she claimed happened in 2006–2007, when he was already married to Melania [41] —but AMI never published the story. AMI publicly acknowledged having made the payment after The Wall Street Journal revealed it days before the 2016 presidential election, but AMI denied that its purpose had been to "kill damaging stories about" Trump; instead, AMI claimed it had paid only for "exclusive life rights to any relationship [McDougal] has had with a then-married man" and "two years' worth of her fitness columns and magazine covers." [42] [43] In March 2018, McDougal filed a lawsuit to invalidate the non-disclosure agreement she had with AMI. [44] [45] A month later, AMI settled with McDougal, allowing her to speak about the alleged affair. [46] In August 2018, it was reported that AMI CEO/chairman David Pecker and AMI chief content officer Dylan Howard were granted witness immunity in exchange for their testimony regarding hush money payments made by Donald Trump's then-personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, in an attempt to influence the 2016 presidential election. [47]
On December 12, 2018, the U.S. Attorney's office announced its agreement with AMI. "AMI admitted that it made the $150,000 payment in concert with a candidate's presidential campaign," the press release said, so that Karen McDougal wouldn't "publicize damaging allegations about the candidate before the 2016 presidential election. AMI further admitted that its principal purpose in making the payment was to suppress the woman's story so as to prevent it from influencing the election." As a result of this agreement, AMI did not face prosecution and agreed to provide extensive assistance to prosecutors about the involvement of Trump and other politicians with the company. [2] The same press release also revealed that Michael Cohen had been sentenced to three years in prison for various crimes, including the $150,000 campaign finance violation—the facilitation of the payment to McDougal—to which he pled guilty on August 21, 2018. [48] [49] [50] AMI agreed to pay the Federal Election Commission a $187,500 fine in June 2021. [51]
In April 2024, Pecker testified how he, Howard and Cohen conspired to get the National Enquirer to acquire McDougal's story. [40] Pecker stated that after Howard found out about McDougal's allegation, he sent Howard to California to interview her. [40] During the time Howard met with McDougal, he conversed with Cohen about the situation. [40] Ultimately, McDougal agreed to sell her story to the National Enquirer for $150,000. [40]
In January 2019, the National Enquirer broke a story about the extramarital affair of Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos with Lauren Sánchez. Bezos began investigating how and why the information had been leaked to the National Enquirer. [52] President Trump has long expressed displeasure with Bezos, [53] [54] [55] and Trump's irritation may have increased due to the Washington Post's critical coverage of the murder (and the subsequent cover-up [56] ) of one of its reporters, Jamal Khashoggi. [57] This, Bezos suspects, may have been the political motivation for someone to leak his affair to the tabloid. [58]
On February 7, 2019, Bezos shared emails that he had received the previous day [58] in which AMI sought a public statement from him and his lawyer "affirming that they have no knowledge or basis for suggesting that AM's coverage [of the sexual affair] was politically motivated or influenced by political forces, and an agreement that they will cease referring to such a possibility." AMI chief content officer Dylan Howard and his lawyer Jon Fine threatened Bezos, saying that if Bezos did not promptly meet their demands, AMI would publish selfies and sexts sent between Bezos and his girlfriend. [59] Bezos wrote that he would refuse to make this "specific lie" or to otherwise participate in this blackmail bargain that "no real journalists [would] ever propose." [58] "Of course I don't want personal photos published," Bezos added, but he said he chooses to "stand up, roll this log over, and see what crawls out."
That same day, The Washington Post published an article on the matter, quoting a former federal prosecutor who speculated that this news could undermine AMI's recent deal with the government. If prosecutors decide they must file new criminal charges against AMI, the government may not be able "to continue to use them [AMI] to assist other ongoing investigations," said Robert Mintz. [60]
Lauren Sanchez's brother, Michael Sanchez, an ardent Trump supporter, stated he was told by multiple AMI employees that the Enquirer set out to do "a takedown to make Trump happy" [61] and The Daily Beast reported seeing documents showing that Sanchez believed the Bezos story was run with "President Trump's knowledge and appreciation." [62]
Jeffrey Preston Bezos is an American businessman, media proprietor and investor. He is the founder, executive chairman, and former president and CEO of Amazon, the world's largest e-commerce and cloud computing company. He is the second wealthiest person in the world, with a net worth of US$ 201 billion as of June 14, 2024, according to Forbes. He was the wealthiest person from 2017 to 2021, according to both the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and Forbes.
The National Enquirer is an American tabloid newspaper. Founded in 1926, the newspaper has undergone a number of changes over the years. The National Enquirer openly acknowledges that it pays sources for tips, a common practice in tabloid journalism that results in conflicts of interest. It has also been embroiled in several controversies related to its catch and kill practices and allegations of blackmail. It has struggled with declining circulation figures because of competition from other glossy tabloid publications.
Globe is a supermarket tabloid based in Boca Raton, Florida. It covers politics, celebrity, human interest, and crime stories, largely employing sensationalist tabloid journalism. It was established in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 1954.
Karen McDougal is an American model and actress. She is known for her appearances in Playboy magazine as Playmate of the Month for December 1997 and Playmate of the Year in 1998, and for her alleged 9-month-long affair with Donald Trump before he became president. In 2001, the readers of Playboy voted McDougal the runner-up of "The sexiest Playmate of the 1990s."
Star is an American celebrity tabloid magazine founded in 1974. The magazine is owned by American Media Inc. and overseen by AMI's Chief Content Officer, Dylan Howard.
The National Examiner is a supermarket tabloid from America. It was formerly owned by American Media, Inc. (AMI). AMI's chief content officer, Dylan Howard, oversaw the publication.
Lauren Wendy Sánchez is an American media personality who gained fame as an entertainment reporter and news anchor. She has been a guest host on The View, co-host on KTTV Fox 11's Good Day LA and anchor on the Fox 11 News at Ten, and anchor and special correspondent on Extra. Sánchez has also been a regular contributor on shows including Larry King Live, The Joy Behar Show and Showbiz Tonight.
Tabloid journalism is a popular style of largely sensationalist journalism which takes its name from the tabloid newspaper format: a small-sized newspaper also known as half broadsheet. The size became associated with sensationalism, and tabloid journalism replaced the earlier label of yellow journalism and scandal sheets. Not all newspapers associated with tabloid journalism are tabloid size, and not all tabloid-size newspapers engage in tabloid journalism; in particular, since around the year 2000 many broadsheet newspapers converted to the more compact tabloid format.
Men's Journal is an American men's lifestyle magazine focused on outdoor recreation and comprising editorials on the outdoors, environmental issues, health and fitness, style and fashion, and gear. It was founded in 1992 by Jann Wenner of Wenner Media, who sought to create a publication for "active, accomplished men to fuel an adventurous and discerning lifestyle". Wenner Media sold Men's Journal to American Media, Inc. in 2017. The Arena Group acquired Men's Journal in 2022.
Gavin de Becker is an American author and security specialist who has worked for governments, large corporations, and public figures. Reportedly a billionaire, he runs Gavin de Becker and Associates, which he founded in 1978. The firm protects and advises many of the world's most prominent public figures. He is the author of several books on violence, most notably The Gift of Fear, and his books have been published in twenty-five languages.
Dylan Howard is an entertainment journalist and media executive. He is best known for his work as editor-in-chief of the National Enquirer tabloid between 2014 and 2020, a period in which he oversaw a number of scandals involving powerful figures.
David Jay Pecker is an American publishing executive and businessman, who was the CEO of American Media until August 2020. He was the publisher of Men's Fitness, Muscle and Fitness, Flex, Fit Pregnancy, Shape, and Star. He was also the publisher of National Enquirer, Sun, Weekly World News, and Globe.
Michael Dean Cohen is an American lawyer who served as an attorney for former United States president Donald Trump from 2006 to 2018. Cohen served as vice president of the Trump Organization and personal counsel to Trump, often being described as his fixer. Cohen served as co-president of Trump Entertainment and was a board member of the Eric Trump Foundation, a children's health charity. From 2017 to 2018, Cohen was deputy finance chairman of the Republican National Committee.
The 2017–18 United States political sexual scandals saw a heightened period of allegations of sexual misconduct, harassment and assault, and resulted in the subsequent firings and resignations of American politicians. Some of the allegations are linked to the aftermath of the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse cases starting in October 2017 amid the wider MeToo movement.
The Stormy Daniels–Donald Trump scandal involves an alleged one-night sexual encounter between businessman and former U.S. president Donald Trump and pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels, a conspiracy on the part of Trump to cover up the story in the month prior to the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and Trump's falsification of business records as part of the conspiracy. The story broke in 2018, when The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen paid US$130,000 to Daniels for her silence during the 2016 Trump campaign.
Keith M. Davidson is an attorney in Beverly Hills, California. Davidson has represented clients who sought nondisclosure agreement settlements from notable individuals, including Donald Trump, Charlie Sheen, and Hulk Hogan. He has also managed professional boxers Manny Pacquiao and James Toney.
Catch and kill is a surreptitious technique employed by newspapers and media outlets to prevent an individual from publicly revealing information damaging to a third party. Using a legally enforceable non-disclosure agreement, the publisher purports to buy exclusive rights to "catch" the damaging story from the individual, but then "kills" the story for the benefit of the third party by preventing it from ever being published. The individual with the information frequently does not realize that the tabloid intends to suppress the individual's story instead of publishing it. The practice is technically distinct from using hush money, in which the individual is bribed by the third party to intentionally conceal the damaging information, but identical for all practical intents and purposes.
In January 2020, the FTI Consulting company claimed that in May 2018 with "medium to high confidence" the phone of Jeff Bezos had been hacked by a file sent from the WhatsApp account of the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman. The Saudi Arabian embassy to the United States has denied the allegations. Billionaire Jeff Bezos, the owner of The Washington Post newspaper and founder of the company Amazon, engaged FTI Consulting in February 2019 after the National Enquirer in January 2019 reported details of Bezos's affair. FTI Consulting did not link the National Enquirer to the hack. In December 2021, the FBI stated they could not find proof to substantiate claims that Saudi Arabia hacked Jeff Bezos phone, and has considered an investigation into those allegations a low priority.
Elizabeth M. Crokin is an American columnist and conspiracy theorist. Since 2017, she has been an outspoken supporter of QAnon conspiracy theories.
The People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump is a criminal case against Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States. Trump was charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal payments made to the pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels to ensure her silence about a sexual encounter between them; with costs related to the transaction included, the payments totaled $420,000. The Manhattan District Attorney (DA), Alvin Bragg, accused Trump of falsifying these business records with the intent to commit other crimes: violation of federal campaign finance limits, unlawfully influencing the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and tax fraud.
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