No more hush money at National Enquirer, its new publisher says

But the tabloid’s new publisher says those kinds of hush-money payments are no longer part of the Enquirer’s business.

“Look, it’s a new day,” said Ted Farnsworth, an entrepreneur whose firm, Icon Publishing, was part of a group that said it planned to purchase the National Enquirer in February. “I don’t even understand how ‘catch and kill’ works, because I don’t come from publishing, but I just know I don’t want it around.”

During an hourlong interview, Mr. Farnsworth, 60, distanced the tabloid from the tactics practiced by the Enquirer’s previous leadership. He said David Pecker, the former publisher of the tabloid and a key player in the hush-money scheme laid out by prosecutors this week, was no longer involved with the day-to-day operations. The tabloid still pays for stories, he said, but tipsters aren’t paid until their information is published — a practice meant to reveal rather than conceal information.

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