 David Pecker |
David Pecker, CEO of American Media, the company that publishes the National Enquirer, was granted immunity by federal prosecutors in the investigation surrounding Michael Cohen
Pecker, a longtime friend of the president, met with prosecutors to describe Cohen’s involvement in the hush money schemes brokered before the 2016 election, the Wall Street Journal reported today. He said that not only did Cohen make payments to two women who allegedly had sexual encounters with Trump while he was running for president, but that the then-presidential candidate had knowledge of those payments.
The hush money was paid to porn star Stormy Daniels, who received $130,000, and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who got $150,000 as part of a “catch-and-kill” setup, in which American Media bought the rights to her story and then withheld it from publication.
The New York Times reports that Pecker and American Media chief content officer Dylan Howard informed Trump that McDougal was looking to tell her story as early as June 2016 and that Cohen finalized a deal for the catch-and-kill operation in August 2016.
Cohen pleaded guilty to eight criminal counts—including tax fraud, making false statements to a bank and campaign violations—on Tuesday.
Trump Media & Technology Group today reported a $58.2M net loss on $4.1M in 2023 revenues, a disclosure that drove its stock price down 22.6 percent to $47.96.
Barry Pollack, an attorney at Wall Street’s Harris St. Laurent & Wechsler, has registered Julian Assange as a client with the Justice Dept. “out of an abundance of caution.”
Paramount Global to slash 800 jobs in what chief executive Bob Bakish calls part of an effort to “return the company to earnings growth"... Rolling Stone editor-in-chief Noah Shachtman is exiting at the end of the month due to disagreements with chief executive Gus Wenner over the direction the magazine is taking... The New York Times broke the $1 billion barrier in annual revenue from digital subscriptions in 2023... Press Forward is investing more than $500 million to strengthen local newsrooms.
The majority of news articles are read within the first three days of publication, according to a recent report.
The Los Angeles Times gives pink slips to 115 people or 20 percent of its newsroom staff... TIME is also laying off about 30 employees, which is approximately 15 percent of its editorial staff... The Baltimore Banner, which was launched by Stewart Bainum in 2022 after he failed to buy the Baltimore Sun, added 500 subscribers per day in the three days following Sinclair Broadcast Group's deal to purchase the Sun.
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