Posted on 12/03/2001 11:11:56 AM PST by Leroy S. Mort
DELRAY BEACH, Fla. (AP) - The chief of beleaguered American Media Inc. said Monday he may move his tabloid empire out of Florida because of lack of support from county and business leaders in the wake of his building's anthrax contamination.
It was the first time since anthrax showed up at AMI's Boca Raton headquarters two months ago that CEO David Pecker suggested his company may take its $40 million in annual revenues elsewhere.
The company publishes six supermarket tabloids including The National Enquirer, Globe and Weekly World News.
"If we're not being treated like a good corporate citizen, I think we should seriously consider moving," he said.
The Palm Beach County Commission preliminarily decided last month to give AMI $390,000 as incentive to stay. As Pecker spoke, he held a local newspaper article in which business leaders criticized using the funds to help the $400 million company.
David Pecker said he didn't need the financial aid, but criticized what he said was the county's failure to rally behind AMI and show "compassion" since a photo editor died apparently from breathing spores in a tainted letter and its building was quarantined.
"We were the company that was attacked. We're the company that had a fatality," he said.
But he added that the employees ultimately would decide whether to stay.
Since the anthrax infection, sales of AMI's circulation has been down 10 percent, the company has spent $10 million to hire cleanup experts, buy new equipment and rent facilities, and its 300 employees are working out of cramped offices, Pecker said.
He said the company already had looked for office space in Palm Beach and Broward counties in case the workers voted to abandon its headquarters.
But without support from county officials, he has decided to extend the search.
"Now I'm going to open up also to other states," he said.
This peckerhead is trying to exploit the terrorist attack on his building to exploit more than the $390,000 the county government has already promised him.
Here's an idea, pecker - earn your friggin' money and stop begging the government to confiscate it from others for you.
As fate would have it, my move to south Florida (Palm Beach County) has put me at the center of America's newest soap opera. I am dating an editor for one of AMI's more erudite publications. In addition to getting free copies of the Star and Enquirer, I am privy to a number of inside stories about the workings of this organization.
I can assure you, if the employees of this company knew that the CEO was thinking of moving it to another state, there would be a new reason for Palm Beach County to make national news - Is "tar-and-feather" hyphenated?
ON THE Q T AND VERY HUSH_HUSH!
Great news: a Pecker in every state!
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