National Enquirer bankrupcty proves even gossip doesn't pay*

The owner of the National Enquirer plans to file a pre-packaged bankruptcy in two weeks to shed debt and reorganize management. The process sounds similar to what MediaNews Group did  earlier this year to unload about $765 million worth of debt.

From AP:

American Media said it will file a prepackaged plan, which the company said should allow it to emerge from bankruptcy less than 60 days after the filing. The company said 80% of bondholders support a plan that calls for them forgiving debt in exchange for ownership.

The company, which also publishes Men's Fitness, Shape and Star magazines, said all its operations will continue as usual, and the reorganization won't affect its business or its staff.

* Update: Oh, and in case you don't care about gossip mags, American Media also publishes Playboy.

Four in the morning

1. The Los Angeles food truck economy is blowing up - these days, any outdoor event that doesn't include a food truck is probably lame. Atlantic

2. KQED in San Francisco is boosting its ranks to boost its newscasts. SF Chronicle (via LA Observed)

3. Playboy is now safe for work (i.e., boring; i.e., what more proof do we need that the Internet is an online distraction zone?). fishbowlLA

4. Politico needs a corrections policy. Regret the Error (via Romenesko)

SFW

Since so many people do their web surfing during the day, while at work, Playboy has decided to launch several new sites, including TheSmokingJacket.com, which will have content that is safe to browse in the workplace. The strategy is part of Playboy's attempt to find new revenue, after a round of layoffs last year:

After noting that Playboy has cut over 100 positions since last year, its headcount is likely to shrink further from its current 573 employees.

TMZ slips on own scoop*,**,***

This morning TMZ went live with what it claimed to be a damning photograph of John F. Kennedy, pre-presidency, relaxing on a yacht as four naked women frolicked nearby. From TMZ:

TMZ has obtained a never-before published photograph which appears to show John F. Kennedy on a boat filled with naked women -- it's a photo that could have altered world events.

It was, as the headline blared, "the photo that could have changed history."

Except that isn't JFK in the photo. After gaining assurances from this expert that photo was probably taken in the 1950s and showed no signs of being Photoshopped, and talking to JFK biographers who said the man in the photo looked a lot like JFK, TMZ later learned the picture was published in Playboy in 1967 - four years after JFK was assassinated.

Aside from the "too good to be true" nature of the photo, which should have caused TMZ to be more skeptical than usual, perhaps this line, from the original post, could have provided a hint that something about the photo's alleged provenance was fishy:

The photo was eventually given to a man who owned a car dealership on the East coast. The man kept it in a drawer for years, and would brag to friends he had an image of JFK on a boat with naked women. The man died 10 years ago and one of his sons inherited the photo.

So, after the Warren Commission investigation, decades of hardcore conspiracy nuts scouring every record for new evidence about a plot to kill JFK, and a raft of auctions that drove up the price on anything Kennedy ever sneeze on, a car dealer "on the East coast" somehow got hold of what is clearly a posed photo of a young JFK and his naked nymphs, and tucked it away in his desk, only to will it to his son? No names, no dates, no locales? No when, why or how?

*Update: And what's next for the purveyor of "unvarnished celebrity coverage"? Sports, according to the New York Times (via LA Observed). The story has TMZ founder Harvey Levin making noise about expanding further into Washington, DC.

**Update II: The Smoking Gun has more on the photo, which originally ran in color under the title "Charter Yacht Party." The man in the photo is "Andy," a paid model.

***Update III: A basic tenet of journalism is that you don't run story if you can't properly explain its origins. It's no coincidence then that TMZ got duped over a photo it could only vaguely tie to a nameless auto dealer from a nameless East coast town. And yet, Harvey Levin had this to say about getting hoodwinked: “We’re not happy about it, but this is part of journalism.”