Be Your Best

Todd Gifford With Iain Calder, former Chief Editor of the National Enquirer

The National Enquirer was one of the most widely read magazines/periodicals in the world.  Over 6 Million copies are sold in a given week, as a weekly publication, for several decades.  I had the opportunity to meet Iain Calder, the leader, editor, and man behind the rise of the National Enquirer from insignificant circulation to multi-million issues per week as a major news source from the 1970’s to through the 1990’s.  Listening to the unbelievable stories that Iain told, even though I have never read an issue of the National Enquirer (although I have seen the magazine cover many times in the checkout lane at the grocery store), I now have tremendous respect for what they accomplished.  In fact, after listening to Iain, I think the National Enquirer can teach us all one of the most important lessons there is about success in life.

The Story About How They Got The Story Is Better than…

Let me share with you a couple of the amazing stories that Iain talked about, and see if you can identify the Big Lesson we can take away and apply ourselves.  Also, as I share these stories, I think you will see that the stories about how the National Enquirer got their story are really more amazing than the incredible stories they published!

Interviewing Pete Rose by Sneaking INTO Prison

Iain said that everyone in the magazine business wanted to interview Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds of professional Major League Baseball, who at the time was in Federal Prison in Marion, IL for tax evasion.  Every magazine and newspaper in the country was trying to get the Pete Rose interview with no luck.  The National Enquirer team brainstormed the idea of having a couple reporters offer a free concert to the Prison warden, which worked like a charm.  On the day of the setup for the concert, they put a camera inside the front of one of the concert speakers.  As the concert gear was being brought in, the woman reporter, flirting with some guards, offered them $50 to meet Pete Rose.  And they were now interviewing Rose!  Rose was so impressed with how they snuck into prison to see him, that he allowed them to take a photo with the camera they smuggled in.  But then it gets even more interesting…

They loaded up the equipment after the concert, and while they were fueling up the car with the speaker/camera in it, the car was stolen!  Needless to say, they were going crazy to hunt down the car with the camera with the incredible Pete Rose photo.  They did finally track down the car and the speaker with the camera, and published one of the biggest stories of that decade.

The Last Photo of Elvis

The death of Elvis Presley, ‘The King’, was one of the biggest news stories of the 20th century.  Iain Calder and The National Enquirer wanted the last word on this news story, which they felt, would be accomplished by getting the last photograph of Elvis before he was buried.  Problem was that Elvis’ body/casket was heavily guarded with no photographs allowed.

Knowing if they got something big it would mean huge circulation, Calder sent 5 reporters to Memphis with $100,000 in cash, plus 25 other National Enquirer staff, including some detectives.  They came up with the idea to dress one of the team as a Priest!  After casing the area, they discovered who the extended family members were, and followed two of Elvis’ cousins into a nearby bar men’s restroom.  One cousin was offered a nice sum of money and a camera to take a photo of Elvis at night when no one was around.

When nearly everyone had left the room that Elvis’s casket was in, the cousin quickly and discretely snapped 4 photos and returned the camera.  Two of the four photos were of the ceiling, but one of those two remaining photos, along with the headline “The Untold Story”, graced the cover of the National Enquirer that sold just under a record 7 Million copies that week.  The National Enquirer had the last photo of The King.

The Important Lesson

If you have not guessed by now, the important lesson that we can all learn from Iain Calder, and the National Enquirer, is that persistence overcomes just about all barriers.  Regardless of what you think of the National Enquirer, the persistence, creativity, and tenacity by which they went after their goal was unmatched.  Publications and reporters with more skill and resources fell short of what the National Enquirer was able to accomplish in these situations.  It’s an important lesson to remind ourselves of periodically, especially when times are tough.

Be Your Best,
Todd D. Gifford