I Watched a Wild Hog Eat My Baby

This overview comes from a tabloid insider: Sloan (JFK: Breaking the Silence) has been an editor for the National Enquirer and for the tabloid publisher Globe Communications. He thus displays empathy for the publications and their staff, capable journalists who used to divide their days between researching legitimate stories and making up scandalous, juicy ones, such as ""JFK Is Alive on Skorpios!"" or ""109-Year-Old Man Lives in Hollow Log with Pregnant Wife & 6 Kids."" Sloan recalls the business genius of former boss Generoso Paul Pope Jr.; with the financial backing of major crime boss Frank Costello, Pope took the struggling National Enquirer in the early 1960s from a mainstream publication to one that celebrated graphic sex and violence. Then, recognizing the potential of marketing to housewives standing in supermarket lines, Pope refashioned his paper again in the late 1960s to one that often highlighted miracle cures and terminally ill children. Later, Pope again saw tremendous new opportunity in exploiting the lives of celebrities, and tabloids flourished at their peak in the 1970s and '80s with a circulation of 12 million. Since the 1990s, Sloan argues, the emergence of sensationalism in mainstream print and nonprint media has caused tabloid circulation to drop off. Although this account is sometimes rambling and unfocused, Sloan does cover the major papers and the players in their heyday. Illus. not seen by PW. (Mar.) Forecast: Prometheus could have a hit with this title, which should appeal to a variety of markets, from students of journalism and cultural studies to tabloid fans to anyone curious about, or titillated by, the how and why of sleaze.