Furlough ‘bloodbath’ at Nat’l Enquirer owner

Furloughs have kicked off at the beleaguered owner of the National Enquirer, with sources describing the cuts as a “bloodbath.”

Insiders at A360 Media, formerly known as American Media, said on Friday that 15 positions had been furloughed at the supermarket tabloid and two smaller ones, the Globe and the National Examiner.

By Sunday, sources were telling The Post that as many as 198 people had been cut across other publications.

Us Weekly was said to have been particularly hard hit. Former CEO David Pecker paid $100 million to acquire the gossip magazine from Wenner Media two years ago with the provision that half the editorial staff would be laid off.

Now with advertising slumping and newsstand sales in airports and terminals plunging, sources say it’s absorbing the deepest cuts.

Although the cuts are technically furloughs, staffers say they are not optimistic these people will be brought back when the pandemic eases.

“Nobody thinks they’re ever coming back, ”one insider said.

A spokesman for the Chatham Asset Management hedge fund, which owns A360 Media, declined to comment beyond last week’s memo from Accelerate360 CEO David Parry warning of the impending cuts.

As The Post reported at the time, Parry blamed the furloughs on ongoing problems in the media world tied to COVID-19.

Chatham Asset Management announced on Friday that it had wrapped up its deal to buy newspaper giant McClatchy.