Journalists like to talk about "owning" a story. But the people at RadarOnline.com have practically stamped their corporate logo on the forehead of Nadya Suleman, the "Octo-Mom" from Whittier whose shockingly prolific reproductive habits have made her a media sensation.
They really, really love to talk about Octo-Mom over at RadarOnline. In fact, since the news of her octuplets first broke in late January, the website has published 56 items about her, an average rate of nearly two per day. Five stories landed on Friday alone, including an exclusive video interview with Suleman, who revealed that she gained 130 pounds during her pregnancy: "I've never in my life been so big and swollen," she said.
Suleman's mother, Angela, who appeared alongside her daughter in Friday's video scoop, was, according to a family attorney, paid $40,000 to appear in a much-discussed RadarOnline video earlier this month in which she assailed her daughter's child-bearing as "unconscionable." So you might say that RadarOnline, which is based in New York, is bringing its own version of fiscal stimulus to a select group of California residents.
Most Americans had likely never heard of RadarOnline before now. But the site almost instantly made a name for itself with the Octo-Mom story, generating huge pickup on NBC's "Today," CNN and elsewhere (traditional print publications, including this newspaper, have also delivered scoops that the TV networks have ended up following). RadarOnline thus seems to be trying to duplicate the success of TMZ, the celebrity gossip source that broke news of Mel Gibson's anti-Semitic tirade a few years back and then extended its brand into a syndicated TV series that stars Harvey Levin and some pretty blond kid who looks like the lead in the old WB version of "Tarzan."
The tabloid POV
What most viewers likely don't know is that folks behind RadarOnline aren't strangers to the celebrity field. The site is owned in part by American Media Inc., the company that also controls supermarket tabloids the National Enquirer, Star magazine and other publications. According to published reports as well as a person familiar with the matter, billionaire Ron Burkle and budding media mogul Yusef Jackson, son of Jesse Jackson, also own stakes.
High debts recently forced AMI, led by Chief Executive David Pecker, into a painful restructuring. The problems are at least in part due to its supermarket tabloids, whose print fortunes have been declining for years. The company also paid a huge price for largely ignoring the Web as TMZ, Perez Hilton and other gossip sites built enormous audiences there.
