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July 26, 2007

World’s wackiest tabloid to close

By Jeffrey Blyth

One of America’s best-known tabloids – and certainly its wackiest and most sensational – is folding.

Weekly World News is about to publish its last issue after 28 years on the newsstands. At one time the weekly, owned by David Pecker and part of his American Media group – had a circulation of well over a million. That was back in the mid 80’s, soon after its was launched. At that time it had a staff of nearly 400.

But times are getting tough for the weekly tabloids in America, including WWN’s sister publication The National Enquirer, whose circulation is down to just over 800,000. The circulation of WWN recently dropped to around 80,000. Most the staff – down to 12 – have already been laid off.

WWN was noted for its wacky stories and headlines such as” Russian Farmer kills Six Foot Grasshopper” or “Meet Bat Boy: Half Man, Half Bat” (a story that was the inspiration for a cartoon strip and a musical).

Probably best-remembered is “Ka-Boob – Woman’s Breast Implant Explodes”. The name Weekly World News (and some of its weird offbeat stories) will continue – but only on a website.

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