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‘Reader’s Digest’ Cuts Rate Base, Courts Conservative Readers

Reader’s Digest magazine is reducing its coverage on celebrities and how-to features and boosting the number of inspirational, spiritual stories, in a move that is taking it away from years of attempting to appeal to the broadest possible audience to a focus on a more conservative readership, The New York Times writes.

The magazine will “focus on a market that’s ignored but is incredibly powerful,” says Mary Berner, president and chief executive of Reader’s Digest, who added that half the country is annoyed that Barack Obama is president. With testing, Berner says the magazine has discovered that a focus on conservative values is what will resonate best with readers. The company even considered turning the magazine into a “right-wing handbook,” with stories about issues such as promoting prayer in schools, but Berner says tests of the idea bombed.

Reader’s Digest has seen ad pages slip 8% so far this year, compared with 23% for the industry as a whole. The magazine has also reduced its rate base from 8 million to 5.5 million, and hacked its frequency from 12 to 10 times a year. Eva Dillon, president of the Reader’s Digest Community, says the Reader’s Digest brand is currently worth more than $1 billion, and includes 50 editions worldwide, according to MediaPost.

Berner points to the success of the company’s new Purpose Driven Connection magazine - based on evangelical pastor Rick Warren - which offers subscribers not only the quarterly magazine but also religious workbooks, DVDs featuring Warren, and membership in a social-networking website. The magazine is available not only through Wal-Mart but also at churches. That sort of multifaceted effort is the model for Reader’s Digest moving forward, she says.

However, Eva Dillon, president of the Reader’s Digest community, says The New York Times article misinterpreted what’s going on at the magazine. A memo from Dillon (via Daily Finance), reads:

“To clarify, neither the magazine nor the company is going in any direction other than what we are doing now. Reader’s Digest has always been about the values of home, family, community, optimism and country, and certainly our values today are more than ever in step with America, especially during these recessionary times as people focus on the ‘back to basics’ of family and home. What we did with the relaunch and redesign of the magazine and websites was to go back to the roots that made this company great by embracing and catering to our specific and unique audience.”