Reader’s Digest magazine has closed in the UK, according to its editor-in-chief of six years.
Eva Mackevic announced on Linkedin on Monday evening that Reader’s Digest UK has “come to an end” after 86 years.
She wrote: “Unfortunately, the company just couldn’t withstand the financial pressures of today’s unforgiving magazine publishing landscape and has ceased to trade.”
The Canadian edition of Reader’s Digest similarly shut down at the end of last year blaming “declining ad sales revenues, increased production and delivery costs and changes in consumer reading habits”.
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The most recent articles on the Reader’s Digest UK online homepage appear to have been published on Wednesday 24 April – six days ago at the time of writing.
Mackevic informed writers who are waiting to be paid that she has been “assured that the insolvency practitioners are working to communicate with everyone about the next steps”.
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Reader’s Digest UK, which is licensed out by the US parent company, has had a turbulent recent history. In 2010 it went into administration due to a £125m pension fund deficit.
It was saved by private equity fund Better Capital under a Voluntary Company Arrangement with creditors that meant it could take on the business without the pension debts. Better Capital paid around £14m for Reader’s Digest and then invested a further £9m – although in 2013 it sacked 95 out of 120 staff after it closed its retail business and it continued to make substantial losses.
Better Capital sold the magazine brand almost four years later for just £1.
It was taken on by venture capitalist Mike Luckwell who had a vision to revive the retail arm and expand the brand into financial services to emulate the success of Saga and “have some of the crumbs from their table”. Luckwell told Press Gazette he was “confident that we will make a profit within the next two and a half months”.
Luckwell did get the magazine into the black and sold it in 2018 to its former chief executive Gary Hopkins who “worked closely” with him on that turnaround. Hopkins said at the time: “There are some great new opportunities for Reader’s Digest and I look forward to being able to implement a new strategy for Reader’s Digest going forward.”
Vivat Direct Ltd continues to control the UK brand although Hopkins is no longer involved, according to his Linkedin.
The print circulation of Reader’s Digest UK is no longer published by ABC. The latest available is 106,335 in July to December 2016. This compares to a circulation of 403,458 in the first half of 2010 and more than one million in 2001.
In the US, where it was founded in 1922, Reader’s Digest continues to be published by Trusted Media Brands.
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