Keywords

Tabloid

Culture, Politics, The Economy

Those of us who worry about media consolidation don’t usually concern ourselves with the Tabloids. After all, nobody takes those seriously, right? Well, maybe we should be worried

… there was a reasonable expectation that the tabloids would be having a field day with candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger. After all, in his 1977 Oui interview he spoke of his vast sexual conquests and a predilection for orgies; a Premiere magazine article in 2001 depicted him as an aggressive womanizer and a bully; and the same year, the National Enquirer documented” his alleged seven-year affair with a young actress. Given the film community buzz about his vanity, marital woes and plastic surgery, it seemed the tabs would be wallowing in their good fortune.

All of which has made Schwarzenegger’s tabloid disappearing act something of a mystery. Last week, the San Jose Mercury News turned over a few pieces of the puzzle when it reported that, in January, Schwarzenegger’s mentor and early business partner, Joe Weider, had sold his publishing empire — including Muscle and Fitness, Shape and Men’s Fitness magazines — for $350 million to American Media, the tabloid conglomerate that owns the Enquirer, the Star, the Globe and the News of the World.
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