Sam Smith - Back in the 1960s, your editor seriously considered working for the National Enquirer. A friend at Congressional Quarterly called with news that a mutual acquaintance -- a deputy editor at the tabloid -- was looking for a Washington column. The Enquirer was willing to pay $800 a week -- an enormous sum at the time albeit some of it intended for loosening lips.
My friend's scheme was brilliant. Four of us would write under a single pseudonym. Thus we could all keep our day jobs while writing one quarter of a column for a fee greater than my recent salary as a Coast Guard lieutenant.
For five hours, we sat in the dark, dignified dining hall of the Mayflower Hotel discussing the project with the tabloid's chief editor, a small, dapper Englishman who moved from national politics to reflections on the importance of dog stories in perfect segue. We sold each other on ourselves and the three other co-conspirators -- all of whom worked for CQ -- returned to broach the subject with their publisher, Nelson Pointer. Pointer pointedly responded that they could either work for Congressional Quarterly or for the Enquirer but not for both. The scheme disintegrated. I did get paid $100 for a single paragraph item the Enquirer published, but afterwards I felt a little tawdry and never submitted anything else.
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