Monday, July 30, 2007

Man's Head Blown Off by Exploding Cigar!

That was one of my favorite headlines from the Weekly World News. As reported today, their weekly print publication is shutting down-- they'll still publish stories on their website.

The Weekly World News had long specialized in the sensational and weird — Elvis sightings, UFO abductions, the continuing adventures of Bat Boy — and in attention-grabbing headlines like “Garden of Eden Found: Original Apple Recovered!” and “Grossed-out Surgeon Throws Up Inside Patient.” But its circulation began to lag as competitors turned to full-color (The News remained defiantly black and white) and to celebrity news.

In a March earnings statement, American Media said that single-copy sales of The News had dropped to 83,000 in 2006, down from 153,000 in 2004. Recently, the parent company has been slashing its staff numbers and cutting publications, while struggling with heavy debt.

Well, I'll be sad to see the Weekly World News go. But in some ways it may be a good thing-- I'll have more time to step up my blogging efforts now that my real-name exploits won't be getting so much press coverage in that particular venue...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Madame X,
Gosh, I haven't read the Weekly World News for years. When I was in highschool my friends and a few favorite teachers and I used to get together to read the news and marvel at all that we had learned. Thanks for the memories of that. I'll have to look for their site.

Anonymous said...

This is a bit of a relief. Now I know that when my 15 minutes of fame comes, it won't be via the Weekly World News! ;)

Bitty said...

I heart the WWN. I only read the covers at the checkout until I was hanging out with my grandson over Christmas, and I bought him one. That's when I finally realized that it's a low-rent Onion, a parody of all the other tabs.

Yet did I ever buy another issue? No. So I suppose I'm partly to blame for its print demise.

Checking out at the grocery store just isn't going to be as much fun any more.