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Reader’s Digest Publisher Files for Bankruptcy

Grapples with $465M in debt

By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff

Posted Feb 18, 2013 8:44 AM CST

(Newser) – Bogged down by some $465 million in debt, Reader's Digest publisher RDA Holdings has filed for bankruptcy—again. Last night's Chapter 11 filing was the publisher's second in 3 ½ years, the Wall Street Journal reports. The company says this second bankruptcy will only make it stronger, allowing it to focus on its North American business and cut its debt to $100 million. "It’s a very good new lease on life," CEO Bob Guth tells Bloomberg.

Guth is the company's third CEO since its last bankruptcy, which, of course, was also supposed to give it a new lease on life; the bankruptcy judge at the time declared that the company would emerge "on a very healthy and viable basis." Instead, the pressures facing the print industry have weighed on the company—its most recent earnings showed revenue down 26% on the year.

Reader's Digest publisher RDA Holdings has filed for bankruptcy.
Reader's Digest publisher RDA Holdings has filed for bankruptcy.   (PRNewsFoto/Reader's Digest)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 10 comments
Ranch_Boy
Feb 19, 2013 12:24 PM CST
All magazines are having a hard time mainly because people come out of 12 years of government schools and can't read, or can't read for enjoyment.  It's a Gawk and Stare generation. Sit and watch TV and eat junk food.  Play video games and other mindless pasttimes.
logicaldood
Feb 18, 2013 11:09 PM CST
That is too bad that Reader's Digest is having a hard time.  I used to have a subscription to that.  I have not read that in a long time.  I wonder if it because the "good" journalists have slowly died off.  The quality of journalism in general has been slowly declining for quite some time.
Mattsky
Feb 18, 2013 7:55 PM CST
I grew up with it.  It was the only magazine my parents use to get.  I got it my self for a few years.  I cancelled it over ten years ago.   I think it started going down hill around the same time they took the table of contents off the cover.
 

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