The National Enquirer is about to join TV Guide and Wrigley in the business of bringing point-of-purchase pulp from supermarket checkout lines to your computer. In mid-August, the tabloid with a weekly print run of 3 million will launch its new-media edition, thus bringing interactivity to the fine art of gossip.
The Enquirer site will target a more upscale reader than the print version, says Rick Gibson, CEO of Enquirer Online publisher E-Ticket. Gibson hopes the site will lure readers who wouldn't put a tabloid in their shopping bag, but are happy to dig through juicy dirt in the privacy of their own homes.
The site will feature eight news stories per day, each with its own reader forum. Once a week, regular Enquirer columnist Jenny Craig will post weight-loss advice, and Hollywood astrologer Arlene Dahl will do her best to forecast the future. Celebrities will host chat sessions, and, as with the print version, National Enquirer Online will solicit stories from readers in exchange for cash. Though planning to support the site with banner ads, E-Ticket also hopes to vend Enquirer merchandise and implement "modest charges for something really worth it."
"The stories are all true and fact-checked," Gibson asserts, "but they make you say 'Oh, my God, I didn't know that was true.' National Enquirer is known to be the most obvious source of celebrity and public news. There are other sites that do this, but not as vigorously. Obviously, we pull no punches."
"It seems like a natural move for the Enquirer, says Dylan Jones of People Online. "We all know part of the fun of the Web can be trading rumors, inside gossip, and outlandish stories. But it's probably going to be a challenge for them, because the Web doesn't have a shortage of that kind of information.
E-Ticket brings to the venture its success with the America's Most Wanted Web site, which to date claims roughly 1,000 leads which may have played a role in criminal apprehensions. If all goes well with National Enquirer Online, E-Ticket may develop sites for National Enquirer Inc.'s other publications, including soap opera and country music magazines, the celebrity-driven Star, and the supremely outlandish Weekly World News.
