Weekly World News Launches Kickstarter to Revive Tabloid

The World's Only Reliable News is mounting a comeback. The folks at Weekly World News are in the closing days of a Kickstarter campaign the company says will help bring the tabloid back to the masses. The crowdfunding campaign aims to raise $50,000 in funding, which the page says will be used to hire writers, graphic artists, and a web designer to revamp WWN for a digital age. As of this writing on Monday evening, the project is 93-percent funded and has just $3,340 to go until it reaches its goal.

Founded in 1979, Weekly World News is a satirical tabloid known for it's over-the-top "reporting" on aliens, cryptids, and the paranormal. A black-and-white mainstay at grocery stores around the country for the better part of three decades, the print version of WWN stopped heading to the presses in 2007.

Though the paper has carried on digitally since then, it's largely due to the thanks of a volunteer staff and pitches submitted by those wanting to get their writing out in the wild. Should a miracle happen and the campaign double its funding by the end of the week, the paper says a stretch goal is to bring back a print issue.

"Many people think we shut our doors in 2007, but the truth — as you'd expect — is much stranger. We did have to become dormant for a wee bit of time; though not unlike so many other publications, ours simply ran out of money," the company jokes on the Kickstarter page. "Malcontents say we closed, but you can't stop passionate journalists from telling stories the world needs to know!"

The paper adds, "For more than 40 years the Weekly World News has covered stories the mainstream media has ignored, suppressed, or were afraid to take on. Stories that capture the imagination, that stir the soul, that allow people to wonder, to dream — and, at times, to scream! With a record number of people feeling lost, confused, and yearning to know why Pluto has switched places with Venus - NOW IS THE TIME TO RESTORE THEIR COMPASS!!!"

You can find out more information about the Kickstarter and Weekly World News here.