Reader's Digest Magazine

Mondo Times editors    Boulder Colorado USA

Posted at 2:50pm on Friday, January 15th, 2010

Reader's Digest Association Heads Back to Court

The New York Post reported on January 15, 2010:

"The Reader's Digest Association is back in court today hoping to get its latest pre-packaged bankruptcy plan approved even as a group of angry retirees is hoping to derail it.

The Reader's Digest Retiree Group objects to the plan to give them only $4 million to divvy up among themselves.

The retirees says they expected to receive more than $100 million after they left RDA.

The group is composed of 300 former senior executives -- including former RDA president Thomas Kenney, who is also involved with RDA's creditors -- as well as long-serving writers, editors, salespeople and middle managers.

Most of the classes of creditors have signed off on the reorganization, and RDA is hoping it can emerge from bankruptcy on Jan. 31.

The faster the company gets out of bankruptcy, the bigger the pot of money CEO Mary Berner and other top executives get to share. It starts at $3.7 million and drops from there.

The bonuses have also been a lightning rod for criticism.

"It's corporate leaders exploiting the situation for their own selfish gain," said one person recently laid off from RDA."

The full story:
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/dykstra_bunker_play_o905IU07TbLWPMg9s2PwUL

Mondo Times editors    Boulder Colorado USA

Posted at 2:49pm on Monday, December 21st, 2009

Grandma's Reader's Digest No Longer Running On Geritol, the New York Times reported on December 19, 2009:

"Since March 2007, Mary Berner has been reconfiguring the innards of the company — and trying to overhaul its public image, too. If you hear “Reader’s Digest” and think only of a cheery, waiting-room magazine — the one with the jokes, the lists, and the homespun stories like “Nobody Cares About Grandfather’s Clock but Grandma” — well, Ms. Berner would like to have a word with you.

She would like you to know that Reader’s Digest has modernized and, for the first time in its history, won the National Magazine Award this year, the industry’s most coveted prize.

And she would like you to know that said magazine is but a small part of a soon-to-be-renamed company, with a trove of Web sites (like AllRecipes.com) and magazines (like Every Day With Rachael Ray) that you probably didn’t know it owned."

The full story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/20/business/media/20digest.html

Mondo Times editors    Boulder Colorado USA

Posted at 11:51am on Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

Reader's Digest Poised To Emerge From Bankruptcy, the New York Post reported on December 1, 2009:

"The third time is the charm for the Reader's Digest Association, which looks like it is nearing court approval of a plan to emerge from bankruptcy after offering sweeteners to several classes of creditors.

The scheme is expected to knock off 75 percent of the company's debt load.

US bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain, who twice rejected the company's proposals, set a final hearing for Jan. 15.

Under terms, bondholders will be able to swap $600 million in unsecured notes for warrants that will give them 6.5 percent of the company stock, if in the future the company is valued at more than $1.8 billion.

Unsecured creditors will only get 3.6 cents on the dollar for a total of $4 million -- more than the $3 million they were going to divvy up under a previous plan.

Ripplewood Holdings, which orchestrated the $2.2 billion buyout of the public company in 2007, has already written off its entire investment and will have no stake.

RDA filed for Chapter 11 on Aug. 24."

Mondo Times editors    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 11:06pm on Sunday, November 8th, 2009

Purpose Driven Connection magazine, produced jointly by Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Southern California, and The Reader's Digest Association, Inc., will move to a fully Web-based, digital format in January 2010, it was announced on November 4, 2009.

"Impressive reader feedback has prompted us to focus all our energies on our digital format, so our content can be expanded, international, interactive and free," Warren explained. "The positive response from readers was so overwhelming we didn't want the content to be limited only to Americans who could afford a subscription to a magazine."

The last print issue will be the Christmas issue, due out in mid-November. Issues in 2010 will be posted free of charge on www.purposedriven.com

To ensure a successful transition to an all-digital Web magazine, RDA is refunding any unused print subscriptions, and will be working closely with Saddleback Church in hosting the site through the first quarter of 2010.

"Reader's Digest has been so helpful to us, bending over backwards, and offering expertise, in order to help us fulfill our dream," said Warren. "From the start, we've been amazed by the company's commitment to us. They believed in this magazine before we did."

Since the launch of Purpose Driven Connection magazine in January 2009, subscribers to Daily Hope, Warren's free, daily digital devotional has grown to nearly 400,000 people.

"Our biggest discovery was learning that people prefer reading our content online rather than in print, because it is more convenient and accessible," said Warren. "Cell phones now allow us to take content everywhere. And, from our viewpoint, an online magazine allows us to minister to people internationally; provide more content and features than we could fit in a print magazine; create interaction and two-way dialogue; and offer it for free.

"So when we heard the feedback and noticed subscriptions to the print magazine lagging behind Internet usage, in spite of strong retail newsstand sales, we jumped at the chance to go all digital," Warren concluded. "Thankfully, Reader's Digest was willing to help us make the transition."