Reader's Digest - The Story of a Magazine

For many avid readers of the largest selling magazine in the history of the world, Reader's Digest (RD), the early 21^st century brought in rude shocks. Not only had the flagship product of Readers Digest Association (RDA, US) changed drastically in terms of looks and styling, more importantly, its content just was not the same anymore.

The changes were even being viewed by hardcore loyalists of the earlier format as signs of a dear friend wasting away due to some mystery ailment. Not surprisingly, the global subscriber base of RD came down to 23 million in 2002 from the 1996 level of 28 million.

Though RD remained the market-leader in terms of readership and reach in 2002, analysts were quick to point out that the magazine was certainly on a downward slope. Analysts attributed RD's woes to various issues such as the increased use of advanced targeting software by RD's competitors (that helped them easily identify and reach their target customers through mail orders) and the government restrictions imposed on sweepstakes¹ (which had been RD's major source of attracting new subscribers). Apart from these, analysts felt that RD's inability to appeal to the younger generations or change with the market trends also contributed to its downfall during the mid-1990s (the average age of RD's reader base was 47 years).