In response to Weekly World News Shutting Down and More on Weekly World News closing, we received the following letter today:
Dear Editor,
I am e-mailing about the closing of the Weekly World News. My name is Tye Bourdony and I am also the creator of The Lighter Side of Sci-Fi.
As a former staff member of the Weekly World News, I was saddened to hear the news that the paper was closing, but frankly I was not surprised.
The kind of behavior by management to simply call in an entire staff and tell them that they are fired or other equally shocking news, is business as usual for AMI.
To be honest however, the paper’s readership has been steadily declining over the years. I worked at the paper from 2002 to 2004, as an editorial and photo assistant and was also in charge of the paper’s cartoons. The rumors that the paper was closing or that the paper was to be moved to New York were constantly in the air. This was mainly because the weekly sales numbers had been on a steady decline since the mid ’90s. If I recall correctly, by the time I worked at the paper, 1 million readers a week was a thing of the past and if we hit a hundred thousand a week we were extremely happy.
Sure enough, the paper was moved to New York recently, so sometime the year before last, a similar surprise meeting was called for the then Boca Raton staff of the Weekly World News, when they were told that they were all fired and that the paper was being moved to New York. Yet another dark day for the Weekly World News!
Similar shake ups were semi-regular events at AMI, from mass lay-offs, where scores of people would be let go in one day called “Black Wednesday”, to scary newspaper shake ups were half a staff could be let go in a day, or when the Star staff was let go one day and the paper was relocated to New York. Every single time something like this happens at AMI, it is the same kind of meeting and horrible day for AMI employees that follows. This was in truth one of the motivating factors of my depature and my heart goes out to the staff of the Weekly World News.
While I feel a sense of personal loss at the paper’s passing, as it was truly one of the more fun and creative places I have ever worked, this kind of behavior and management style by the AMI executives is status quo.
The Weekly World News was a truly unique entity and it held and will continue to hold a cult status and pop iconic signature to many people. I will indeed miss Bat Boy!
Best,
Tye Bourdony