Search »

Purpose Driven Connection Nixed by Reader’s Digest

Reader’s Digest Association’s experiment to create a hybrid magazine and paid membership organization - the Purpose Driven Connection - has been axed.

The experiment was based on the Rev. Rick Warren’s best-selling book The Purpose Driven Life. Reader’s Digest launched the magazine and membership organization, charging members $29 annually, less than a year ago. The organization included local chapters, social networking tools, DVDs and study guides, in addition to the quarterly magazine, which was also sold through retailers.

But membership numbers were “quite disappointing,” says William K. Adler, spokesman for RDA, The New York Times reports. The final issue of the magazine will be published this month.

The company will continue to operate the free website, purposedriven.com, saying the move to an expanded, fully web-based, digital format was the result of “impressive” reader feedback which prompted them to “focus all our energies on our digital format, so our content can be expanded, international, interactive and free.”

“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,” Warren said in a release.

Warren said subscriptions to the print magazine lagged behind internet usage, in spite of strong retail newsstand sales.

Last summer, the company pointed to the Purpose Driven Connection experiment as the sort of “multifaceted effort” upon which the Reader’s Digest model might be based in the future.

Magazine ad pages fell 26.6% in the third quarter, compared to the same quarter in 2008. For the first half, ad pages were down 27.9%, per the Publishers Information Bureau.

ZenithOptimedia’s latest ad forecast predicts magazine advertising will continue to decline for at least the next two years.