History of Tabloids

We are all aware of the tabloid magazines that sit on grocery store shelves while we are waiting in line. These infamous magazines are known for having bold colorful letters on the first page next to a picture of something completely unrealistic. For example, a picture of an alien head or a common person who looks similar to a celebrity typically dominate the front cover.

However, tabloid magazines were not always this way. 60 years ago they were used to tell real stories about real people and even report important news that educated the public about information that mattered. Everything changed in 1952 when Generoso Pope, Jr. bought the National Enquirer, one of the largest tabloid magazines, and changed the focus of the magazine to what we are familiar with today. This caused magazine sales to rise to one million copies per week. Although many of the stories were fabricated and untrue, people willingly believed the articles in tabloid magazines because they were under the misconception that if the information wasn't true it couldn't be published.

Tabloid magazines began to suffer the effects of publishing false information in the 1950's. In 1952 another one of the biggest magazines, The Confidential, dropped from selling 4 million to 300,000 copies a week when it began to suffer from celebrity law suites.

Trying to avoid these effects, Pope, in 1968 changed the Enquirer's gory and often times unbelievable stories to articles that were more upbeat. These stories told about miracle diets and celebrity gossip. But when people began to read, they realized the inside contents did not match the false headlines. Since people were tricked, the tabloids lost credibility. This caused a slump in sales until 1972 when the Enquirer featured Cher on the front cover dressed in a more revealing outfit than most were used to seeing. This brought attention back to the tabloid magazines and when Sonny and Cher broke up people turned to tabloid magazines to find out the details about the popular couple.

The idea of celebrity news caught on, leading to a high demand for tabloid magazines. People and US Weekly magazines were published for the first time in 1974. The peak in sales of tabloid magazines occurred in the 1980's with the coverage of the OJ Simpson trial. From then on, there has been a steady market in the tabloid industry showing that the public finds those type of magazines entertaining, whether the information is true or not.