Reader's Digest Bankruptcy

smcc360 · Aug 17, 2009

I never thought I'd live long enough to see it-

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090817/ap_on_bi_ge/us_reader_s_digest_bankruptcy

I remember sitting in my grandmother's house reading their magazine and condensed books. I hope they're able to come back from this somehow.

Maryn · Aug 17, 2009

Actually, I'm not surprised. For all of us, it was the reading material of an older person (or occasionally a doctor's office). Reader's Digest has not made any visible effort to entice a new generation of readers, and the octogenarians who subscribed are dying.

As for condensed books, good riddance. When our library has its used book sales, those are put in the FREE box, with no takers.

Maryn, who has increased her word power dozens of times at grandma's

tjwriter · Aug 17, 2009

I enjoy Reader's Digest, but this last renewal they sent me was for one year at $40. A price I was not willing to pay.

Then, after I did not send in a renewal notice, they kept sending me letters saying that I was overdue and they were expecting money, blah, blah, blah. The tone got sort of nasty, and now I will never, ever do business with them again.

You don't harass someone about something they did not do.

Caramia · Aug 17, 2009

Bleh. Double Bleh.

My mother had the little magazine in the house as far back as I can remember and the books too. It was one of the staples always around. I hadn't bought a single one since she died in '06. Now I feel guilty

the addster · Aug 17, 2009

Well, I'll have to tell my folks that closet full of every issue since 1960 is really going to be worth something now. *snickers*

BenPanced · Aug 17, 2009

Wow. They closed Blender Magazine. Now where's VH1 going to get its Top 100 _______________ Countdown material?

But Chapter 11 doesn't mean it's completely out. That's up to the new owners.

alleycat · Aug 17, 2009

BenPanced said:
Wow. They closed Blender Magazine.

Really? Darn. The only magazines my barber shop had were Blender, Golf Digest, and Yachting (why they had Yachting I'll never know . . . this is the same barbershop that George "Goober" Lindsey went to). I guess I'll be thumbing through Golf Digest from now on, and learning about that dogleg on hole 14 at Palm Springs.

Ken · Aug 17, 2009

... very unreceptive to freelance submissions, as I recall. So no real loss to writers. Let this be a lesson to other mags. Assign all the articles in your pubs to staff writers and you too will go bankrupt! A fresh flow of ideas is what is wanted for success and continued readership.

benbradley · Aug 17, 2009

The full story on the bankruptcy is here:
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/episodes/show_rundown.php?show_id=14
Scroll down to "Tess Vigeland's final note."

joyce · Aug 17, 2009

tjwriter said:
I enjoy Reader's Digest, but this last renewal they sent me was for one year at $40. A price I was not willing to pay.

Then, after I did not send in a renewal notice, they kept sending me letters saying that I was overdue and they were expecting money, blah, blah, blah. The tone got sort of nasty, and now I will never, ever do business with them again.

You don't harass someone about something they did not do.[/quote

This happened to me too. I actually have read Reader's Digest for years. When I decided I didn't want to renew I started getting those nasty notes too. I figure somewhere on my credit report is a ding by Reader's Digest for a magazine I didn't want. I hope they can save themselves though.

Matera the Mad · Aug 17, 2009

I outgrew it a long time ago. I won't miss it.

RG570 · Aug 17, 2009

Reader's Digest is nothing but a band of crooks who prey on the elderly.

I will spit and dance on their grave. They are one of the most shameful companies that ever existed. Good riddance.

GraysonMoran · Aug 17, 2009

Sorry to mention it, but Reader's Digest isn't a freelance market because they run nothing but reprints. That's what the whole "digest" concept was all about. They only original material they bought was humor and anecdotes. And they paid pretty well for them, a couple of hundred dollars for a joke.

It was a World War Two era concept and there wasn't much way to update it. Like the big picture magazines of that era. Post, Life, Look. Even Christian Science Monitor has ceased printing.

Things change. For you next SF story (and mental exercise) try to move 75 years forward and explain why the stuff that's so hot with contemporary readers/viewers is dying out, being replace by...?

C.bronco · Aug 17, 2009

Geez. I drive by Reader's Digest every time I go to visit my parents. Right off the Saw Mill River Parkway.

Chasing the Horizon · Aug 17, 2009

GraysonMoran said:
Things change. For you next SF story (and mental exercise) try to move 75 years forward and explain why the stuff that's so hot with contemporary readers/viewers is dying out, being replace by...?

In the year 2085 . . .

People have finally realized reality TV is evil mind-numbing garbage. This has created a wonderful Utopia where everyone is too busy watching the fantastic scripted television shows to commit crimes or wage war.

But they've still failed to create anything to rival the pure greatness of the original Twilight Zone. However, the new neural entertainment implants transmit the original episodes directly into your brain, so when they tell you you're now entering the Twilight Zone at the beginning of the show, it's actually true. The best and brightest minds of the 21st century are lost to alternate dimensions before they realize beaming the Twilight Zone directly into people's brains is a bad idea.

Since there aren't enough talented writers left to keep producing the wonderful scripted television shows, we're forced to return to the wastelands of reality TV. Enraged citizens take to the streets, toppling many governments around the world and causing a brief (and mostly virtual) world war.

When the dust settles, people realize we're better off reading books.

CoriSCapnSkip · Aug 18, 2009

RG570 said:
Reader's Digest is nothing but a band of crooks who prey on the elderly.

I will spit and dance on their grave. They are one of the most shameful companies that ever existed. Good riddance.

Years ago I saw some exposé on TV about how they rooked this old lady into buying a bunch of stuff by making her believe she'd have a better chance to win a sweepstakes.

dpaterso · Aug 18, 2009

I liked reading the magazines in my teens, the jokes were pretty good (for their time). Writing quality especially in short stories was usually high, and something to aim for.

A relative still gets the magazine (through choice) and I recently flicked through a few issues. The jokes were sanitized by political correctness to the point where they often made no sense at all, and my overall impression was that the writing wasn't as sharp.

Still, bankruptcy usually means job losses and I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

-Derek

Bubastes · Aug 18, 2009

dpaterso said:
Writing quality especially in short stories was usually high, and something to aim for.

Does anyone remember when Reader's Digest actually published literary fiction? I discovered John Cheever via RD ("The Worm in the Apple" was the story I read when I was a kid). It's a shame they stopped doing that.

Sophia · Aug 18, 2009

RG570 said:
Reader's Digest is nothing but a band of crooks who prey on the elderly.

I will spit and dance on their grave. They are one of the most shameful companies that ever existed. Good riddance.

To me they were just a magazine that my parents subscribed to. There are still around thirty years' worth, likely a lot more, sitting in the house; Mum's trying to decide what to do with them. I used to flick through them when I was little, and I remember going through and looking specifically for the little jokes and quotations at the end of the articles. And I remember lots of articles about shark attacks, for some reason.

Reader's Digest is full of nostalgia for me, and I'm sad for that reason that they're in such trouble.

Mac H. · Aug 18, 2009

They had a bit of a habit of doing bizarre backflips on their attitude.

For example, they'd run a bunch of articles on how sharks are deadly killers that should be feared ... then they'd run an article complaining how the media just portrays sharks as deadly killers.

They'd run articles about how Hollywood is run by people with no family values who make violent films ... then have a puff piece about how great Mel Gibson is (who is cheating on his wife) and about how he's made this great film called 'Braveheart' that happens to be filled with violence but that's OK.

It's sad that they are having problems, but their habit of repeating the same 'true story' with the names changed .. or even worse a joke from an issue a few years earlier repeated as a 'true story' submitted by a reader seemed pretty unethical.

Mac

TerzaRima · Aug 18, 2009

Oh, man, my grandma got this all the time when I was a kid. My sister and I were obsessed with the I Am Joe. column. Remember that? I Am Joe's Spleen. I Am Joe's Prostate. And I loved It Pays To Increase Your Word Power.

Gatita · Aug 18, 2009

To me, this lil magazine was how my otherwise unread grandpa kept up with the world of words.

My Mexican father-in-law also read it in Spanish and impressed upon his kids the importance of reading -- in a town that was completely illiterate.

To a whole generation of rural people, I have this sense that RD was a window into a world they might not have otherwise known.

So I give it a moment of respectful silence. In a humble way, this is why I am part of a family of people who love words.

Khazarkhum · Aug 19, 2009

Reader's Digest is in trouble for the same reason many publications & companies are in trouble: They stopped listening to their audience.

In 1999 they underwent the transformation from beloved little collections of jokes & stories to fluff & fold celebrity nonsense. Some of the old parts were there--the little jokes, the cartoons--but the magazine itself lost its focus. It went from a middle-of-the-road-conservative magazine to PC, celebutards & silliness. IOW, it turned into every other magazine out there, but smaller.

Maryn, if the library doesn't want the condensed books, see if the local Senior Center can use them. And prisons, where books get read to the point they are held together with rubber bands.

Cassiopeia · Aug 19, 2009

When I'd visiting my grandparents they had volumes of the condensed stories in them. I loved reading those upstairs in the old farm house while everyone else was out busy playing or riding tractors. Those are some of my fondest summer memories.

GraysonMoran · Aug 19, 2009

For example, they'd run a bunch of articles on how sharks are deadly killers that should be feared ... then they'd run an article complaining how the media just portrays sharks as deadly killers.

Hard to argue, in that case.

Again, they "digest". They ran articles they thought of interest to readers. So, yeah, the content could vary because it came from other sources.

I'm not sure everybody coomment on RD really understands quite what they were doing.

Reader's Digest Bankruptcy

I've Got An MFA In LEO

I Tried

Emerging Anew

Alliteration Afflicted

THE BLUEBERRY QUEEN OF HADES (he/him)

Still around

It's a doggy dog world

I'm really shy...

Bartender, gimme a Linux Mint

I have plans...

Blowing in the Wind

New kid, be gentle!

Also in our Discord and IRC chat channels

bananaed

Board Visitor

Absinthe O'Malice

Girl reporter

Otherwise Occupied