Shocking Truth About Tabloids and Trading

Tabloids Body Slam WWE

Today's tabloid trade involves World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE Quote). This week brought tragic news: Chris Benoit, a WWE wrestler, apparently killed his wife and son, before hanging himself.

This was a horrific event with, in the end, some modest business implications. We must, unfortunately, look at everything in cold terms of their effect on business, and the WWE had some issues on its hands, ones that should have unfolded in a containable fashion over a long period of time as the investigation progressed.

By then, fans, who don't seem to be concerned with this sort of stuff anyway, would have essentially forgotten.

But this business news jumped to the tabloids quicker than anything has since Stern was parading drunk, angry dwarfs in front of Wall Street Journal reporters.

Papers were buzzing all week with sensationalistic glimpses of the crime (real and otherwise), innuendo, blame-shifting and headlines, headlines, headlines. Here is a sampling just from the New York Post. Notice how steroid rage was instantly blamed, and then there were purported new clues, with murder/suicide then put in quotes. We also had endless loose threads and intriguing details adding up to God-knows-what when a Wikipedia page on Benoit may/may not have been altered to reflect the tragedy before it had actually been discovered.

"Wrestle Maniac's 'Roid Rage"

"New Clues in Benoit 'Murder-Suicide'"

"Nancy Benoit's Death Reported Online Before Police Found Bodies."