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Joe Warren’s Purpose-Driven Magazine

The popular evangelical pastor Rick Warren - author of The Purpose-Driven Life - is said to be in talks with Reader’s Digest Association about a magazine, possibly called Purpose.

Of the magazine, editor Joe Treen, former editor at People and Discover, told Portfolio, “I’m not allowed to talk about it.” A spokesman for RDA said there was no such project either about to happen or about to be announced, while a spokesman for Warren said she “can’t confirm anything of that nature at this time.”

A test issue of the magazine could be released as early as this fall, Portfolio writes.

RDA is launching at least two other new titles this winter. Best You will launch in January, followed by Fresh Home in Feb.

It is a daring time to be on the launch. Newsstand sales of U.S. consumer magazines slipped by 6.3 percent in the first half of 2008, as consumers cut back on nonessentials. Magazine circulation overall was flat, at 349.9 million copies, and paid subscriptions inched up to 290.2 million, per the Audit Bureau of Circulations.