Maxwell Agrees to Acquire Three Supermarket Tabloids

NEW YORK â€”  British media baron Robert Maxwell said Wednesday that his Mirror Group Newspapers Ltd. has agreed to buy the gossipy tabloids Globe, National Examiner and Sun in the latest ownership shakeup among the publishers of magazines sold mainly in grocery checkout aisles.

The value of the transaction was not disclosed. Maxwell said he hoped to complete the purchase from Globe International Publishing Inc. by mid-June.

Globe International, a privately held publishing concern based in Montreal, said the combined circulation of the three weekly magazines exceeds 2.5 million.

The deal comes amid a major consolidation among the supermarket tabloids.

The publisher of the National Enquirer, the supermarket tabloid leader with circulation of more than 4.1 million, recently agreed to buy the second-biggest tabloid, the Star, which sells an average 3.6 million copies a week.

The buyer, G. P. Group Inc. of Lantana, Fla., said in late March that it had agreed to pay at least $400 million in cash and securities to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. for the Star.

The Globe International tabloids would be Maxwell’s first magazines in the United States, where his main interest has been book publishing and information services. Maxwell Communications Corp. bought Macmillan Inc. two years ago.

Maxwell also is chairman and chief executive of Britain’s Mirror Group PLC, which publishes the Daily Mirror, the United Kingdom’s second-largest newspaper, and other newspapers such as Sporting Life and the Daily Record and the Sunday Mail in Scotland.

Its Mirror Group Newspapers unit recently launched the European, an English-language weekend newspaper for Europe.

Maxwell reportedly lost out in bidding for the National Enquirer, which was sold last year by the estate of founder Generoso Pope Jr.

The tabloid went to a group that includes the media investment company Macfadden Holdings Inc. and Boston Ventures Management Inc. for $412.5 million.

The Globe and the National Examiner each have been published for about 35 years. The Globe originated as a local entertainment magazine in Montreal called Midnight while the National Examiner had its roots in the Midwest, according to Globe International spokesman Dean Heine.

He said Mike Rosenbloom, the owner of Globe International, acquired both the Globe and National Examiner about 20 years ago. Rosenbloom started Sun about nine years ago.

The Audit Bureau of Circulations said the Globe had an average circulation of 1.33 million in the six months ended Dec. 31, down 12.9% from a year earlier, while the National Examiner averaged nearly 894,000, down 20.2%.

The bureau does not audit circulation figures for Sun, but Heine said its circulation is about 450,000 a week.

Heine said the three magazines emphasize entertainment and generally have moved away from the gruesome stories that once characterized the supermarket tabloids.

In the current edition of the Globe, the cover features photos of actresses Vanna White and Linda Evans to accompany a featured story alleging they are “in a bitter battle for the same man.�

The National Examiner has cover stories claiming that former evangelist Jim Bakker is going insane and describing the plight of a tourist whose prosthetic plastic nose melted in the Florida heat.

“Jesus back on Earth, say scholars� reads another cover headline.

It publishes Bridal Guide, the humor magazine Cracked and Your Health magazine. It also publishes so-called mini-mags on topics such as calorie counting and horoscopes, detective magazines and puzzle books.

In a separate announcement, Maxwell said he planned to buy a major stake in the Communist Party-owned Berliner Verlag, East Germany’s biggest publishing house.