Our Friend David (Pecker)

John Burns
by John Burns

Not to get political or anything, but it’s interesting to note in an it’s-a-small-world way, that the David Pecker in the news now is the same guy who made the call to kill off Cycle magazine in 1991. At the time, Pecker was CEO of Hachette magazines, which owned both Cycle and Cycle World, along with a bunch of other titles. (“Magazines” were large-format softbound books of about 100-200 pages which arrived in your mailbox, usually once a month.)

If you’re under 40 this means nothing to you, but at the time, a lot of readers were very upset and so were most of us who found ourselves out of a job when the USA’s leading source of motorcycle news was unceremoniously shut down. But according to then-Publisher Larry Little, it probably wasn’t a bad business decision: “Pecker was certainly the one who made the call, and while unpopular among all of us, the reality was that Ziff had grown the circ[ulation] in a very expensive and unsustainable way [Ziff-Davis had been the previous owner], and it was losing money when the ads went soft. Cycle World didn’t have anywhere near the bloat in circ, which is why it was smaller, and was still profitable.”

Pecker is now referred to as the king of the tabloids – think National Enquirer – and lately finds himself in hot water over his special relationship with President Donald Trump. Read all about it here at theguardian.com.

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  • Goose Goose on Aug 22, 2018

    Update: Micheal Cohen has also apparently revealed that Mr. Pecker worked to kill information about Donny's affaires.

    "The prosecutor told the judge the purpose of the payments was to ensure that the individuals did not disclose "alleged affairs with the candidate." Besides the $130,000 payment, Cohen admitted to making an illegal contribution of $150,000, which was how much McDougal received from the National Enquirer’s publisher to quash her story."

    Also allegations that Mr. Pecker bought and killed other stories to protect his bro Donny.

    Clearly, just a witch hunt for sure. Nothing to see here.

  • Old MOron Old MOron on Aug 29, 2018

    Tabloid that kept Trump secrets faces losses, legal trouble:
    https://www.mail.com/entert...

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