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In your spotless Tuesday media column: more stories of magazine poop, business journalists web-surf predictably, a Florida politico type applauds the layoff of newspaper "pieces of shit," AMI's not for sale any more, and alt-weeklies bombarded with cash. More »
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Earlier this week, a rumor circulated that Time Inc. was considering buying celeb-slobbering money-losing OK! Magazine. Time decided not to. But a fellow money-losing enterprise is, for some reason! More »
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In your misty Monday media column: Michael Wolff vs. David Carr continues, as does the HuffPo's hiring spree, as does the growth of the class action suit against HuffPo, Gay Talese gives the NYT props, Time magazine has an apocalyptic "brand image," and AMI is for sale. More »
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Earlier this year, we heard rumors of a revolt brewing among dissatisfied employees at AMI, publisher of Star and The National Enquirer. This prompted every last AMI editor and executive to email us, insisting in the most strenuous terms that AMI is just fine! For example, Star editor Candace Trunzo (pictured, at left) wrote, "What revolt? This is a crock! Your source clearly has an axe to grind. At Star, we are committed to the magazine, AMI and most especially David. He is a superb leader!" More »
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Yesterday we told you that a revolt may be brewing at National Enquirer publisher AMI, where employees are upset about furloughs, layoffs, and perceived management screw-ups following its recent bankruptcy. Did we get some feedback from AMI execs? Did we! More »
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American Media Inc., publisher of the National Enquirer and Star, is freshly emerged from bankruptcy, and already cutting costs with layoffs and mandatory unpaid furloughs. Now, we hear AMI's beleaguered employees are on the verge of total revolt. More »
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In your congratulatory Thursday media column: Jake Tapper wins the Game of TeeVee, News Corp cleans up its UK tabloid, Star and the National Enquirer merge newsrooms, a new Newsweek publisher, and a new job for Helen Thomas. More »
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In your packed Thursday media column: Jeff Bewkes hides in plain sight, News Corp's looking to poach from the NYDN, the decline of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, AMI's bankrupt, and Vice comes to MTV. More »
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American Media, publisher of the National Enquirer and Star, has been working for over a year to wiggle out of its crushing debts without bankruptcy. It didn't work: the company will be declaring bankruptcy in the next two weeks. [NYP] More »
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Newsweek—though financially ruined—had quite a few suitors for her attention. But her father, Donald Graham, won't let her just run off with any old fast fella with cash and flash. He's finding her a nice, old, upstanding buyer. More »
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Today RadarOnline said Hurt Locker star Jeremy Renner didn't hit on Jessica Simpson because he has a girlfriend. Last month, the National Enquirer—also owned by AMI!—outed him. Are they trying to have their gay-ke and eat it, too? More »
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RadarOnline.com has learned exclusively that Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts is considering stepping down. "RadarOnline.com has been told that Roberts, 55, could announce his decision at any time." The Pulitzer hunt heats up! Update: RadarOnline.com has retracted. More »
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In your Byzantine Monday media column: searching for a rich media savior, a recipe duplication scandal, the future of robot media is $1 per hour, and STEPHEN A. SMITH is back in your area code. More »
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The WSJ takes a shot today at the story of Tiger Woods' clandestine deal to appear in Men's Fitness in exchange for the National Enquirer keeping his affair quiet. AMI, Tiger Woods, and News Corp all look ridiculous now. More »
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Playboy, which is really just hobbling along waiting to be sold at this point, is outsourcing its non-editorial production duties to AMI, which now has the weirdest stable of publications in the business. More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5411881&view=rss&microfeed=true • Comcast denied the rumors yesterday, but it now appears the cable giant is involved in talks to take a controlling stake in NBC Universal. [NYT, NYT] More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=507435&view=rss&microfeed=true • Project Runway filmed its season finale under the tent in Bryant Park today. When—and if—you'll ever get to see it remains up in the air. [NYT] More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=504516&view=rss&microfeed=true • The broadcast of Super Bowl XLIII generated solid results for NBC, even though ratings were down 6% from last year. [THR] More »
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National Enquirer and Star publisher American Media has, for all practical purposes, gone bust. Although they left enough wiggle room to declare a successful non-bankruptcy! More »
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The National Enquirer and Star could theoretically be out of business within weeks, what with publisher American Media facing a creditor takeover or even bankruptcy. More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5130937&view=rss&microfeed=true • David Pecker's magazine empire may avoid bankruptcy after all. [NYP] More »
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RadarOnline.com was bought by National Enquirer publisher AMI in October, and Enquirer editor David Perel was put in charge of it. And thanks to Jett Travolta's death, the site is now a great gossip reputation-launderer. More »
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Radar magazine died a particularly gruesome death in its third iteration: bought by AMI, its website was gutted and replaced by a terrible Zombie Radar. Now, print mag subscribers received one last insult via postcard: More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5118967&view=rss&microfeed=true <i>National Enquirer</i> publisher AMI is cutting staff (12 now, more tomorrow) as it races to avoid bankruptcy. More »
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Is AMI going to go bankrupt? Nooooooooo! Do you know what that would mean: trouble for the new zombie version of Radar.com! Keith Kelly reports this morning that AMI, which publishes Star and the National Enquirer in addition to zombie Radar, missed a deadline on an interest payment and is "feverishly negotiating" with its lenders. How can you publish the National Enquirer in its finest year ever and still be coming up short of cash? We blame Bonnie Fuller, a little bit. More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5106328&view=rss&microfeed=true ♦  Alan Colmes, the "liberal" who supposedly serves as co-host of Hannity & Colmes with Sean Hannity, is leaving the Fox News program at the end of the year. [HuffPo] More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=503196&view=rss&microfeed=true ♦  Election returns may set TV viewing records tonight, assuming there's some "suspense." [AP] More »
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Don't blame the Radar staff for those horrible celebrity gossip items going up on the site today. The entire staff has been locked out of the office since Friday afternoon. After the news the magazine would be folding was announced on Friday during an interminable meeting, an HR official came in to tell the staff at 1p.m. that they would need to empty their desks by 3p.m. More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5069467&view=rss&microfeed=true “The theme will still be ‘Vampires and Victims,’ but with an oh-so-appropriate ‘funeral’ spin." [WWD] More »
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The new editor of RadarOnline.com—presumably replacing Alex Balk—will be David Perel. He's the current editor of the National Enquirer! So what does he do on the same day that AMI buys the website and everyone there gets laid off? He tells CoverAwards, “I have already been contacted today by some top entertainment and news journalists who want to be part of this new venture. I am looking forward to putting together a new team that is the best of the best. We are hiring now!” Uh, is it just me or is that an enormous prick move? More »
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As rumored, AMI has bought the website RadarOnline.com, just as the print version of Radar folds. That, incongruously, puts the site under the same corporate umbrella as the celebrity mags Star and the National Enquirer, which may now become off-limits for mockery. The site will be "relaunched" in 2009. Judging from the tone of the press release alone, the site may well be repositioned to be far more credulous in its celebrity coverage, and consequently less funny. The effect on the RadarOnline staff is not clear yet; we'll fill in details as they come. Full press release from AMI below: More »
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• According to Nielsen, John McCain's acceptance speech at the RNC was watched by more people than Obama's speech last week. [TVWeek]
• Jeffrey Toobin on John McCain's speech last night: "The worst speech by a nominee that I've heard since Jimmy Carter in 1980." [HuffPo]
• Us Weekly's decision to take on Sarah Palin seems to have upset some subscribers. [MSNBC]
• Alessandra Stanley offers up her take on the O'Reilly-Obama match-up last night. [NYT]
• More trouble for magazine mogul David Pecker. [NYP]
• Jack Kliger will not be the chairman of Hachette after all. [Portfolio]
• One headline we never expected to see concerning Kathie Lee Gifford: "The Craziest (and Sexiest) Woman on TV." [Style.com]

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]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=501683&view=rss&microfeed=true "The bondholders, who own a portion of American Media's junk bonds, want the company's private-equity owners to give them a larger take in return for retiring some of its debt, according to sources close to several bondholders." [Post] More »
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American Media, the publisher of Star and the National Enquirer, has come to an agreement with its creditors to "refinance" $570 million of its more than $1 billion in total debt. That's code for going to the people you owe money to and saying, "Funniest thing—I just can't pay you. Wanna change our deal a little bit? Or would you prefer I just declare bankruptcy and we both get screwed?" As savvy financial types like to say, if you owe the bank $1 million, they own you; if you owe the bank $1 billion, you own them. More »
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• Temasek, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, has "great confidence" in Merrill CEO John Thain. [Bloomberg]
• Henry Kravis's KKR, Hellman & Friedman and Bain Capital are all in the running to acquire Neuberger Berman from an ailing Lehman Brothers. [Dealbook]

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Bonnie Fuller was axed last month from her job as editorial chief of American Media. But the company gave her $2.4 million in fiscal year 08, which is 50% more than even CEO David Pecker got. And AMI, which is facing some serious financial challenges of its own, was planning a $2 million severance package for her if she left by the end of March (since she didn't, they haven't revealed her actual severance—but it's surely in that ballpark). Fuller's rich, but she's still a well-known neurotic about money issues, dating back to her own mother's rough period of being broke after a divorce. Understandable—but it doesn't really give one the right to start yelling at the good people from the freaking Make-A-Wish foundation, as Fuller once famously did when she thought they were being too stingy: More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=397629&view=rss&microfeed=true Slate's Mickey Kaus thinks that supermarket billionaire Ron Burkle's scheme to Source Interlink (he is the majority shareholder, and by the way, that stock is so deep in the toilet) with American Media Inc. gives the Clintons control of that company's tabloids. But we hear this weird rumor that Conde Nast will make a play for Burkle's company while it's dirt cheap, heading off the deal with American Media. More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=321390&view=rss&microfeed=true Once again, American Media Inc., publisher of Star, the National Enquirer and Men's Fitness, filed its financial statement with the S.E.C. well past the due date. And we can understand why: The company is hemorrhaging money. Is there some way they could cut costs to help the bottom line? Well, maybe they could reduce the amount they shell out on Chief Editorial Director Bonnie Fuller's beauty treatments. More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=296137&view=rss&microfeed=true Star magazine will miss its first-half targets; the title has been selling about 600,000 copies per week, a number which may drop further as the summer winds down. [WWD] More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=283745&view=rss&microfeed=true Supermarket magnate and Kate Hudson friend (and probable Radar investor!) Ron Burkle still wants to buy something—anything—in media. This time around he's looking at American Media Inc. Again. [NYP] More »
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