Reader’s Digest announced in the US overnight that it will cut issues from next year and only publish 12 issues of the print publication while expanding its digital products. By digital they could mean online, Kindle, iPhone, digital magazines and other platform opportunities outside of print. MediaPost has a good report covering the moves including this quote from Eva Dillon, president of the Reader’s Digest Community:
“As one of the world’s largest producers of original content, we will continue our transformation into an innovative multimedia brand by delivering content to users whenever and by whatever means they want, through expanded digital and print investments and the development of new mobile, video, and multimedia applications…”
There it is, the one issue newsagents need to research, debate and develop a strategy to cope with. We face no other issue which will impact like this. What we think today are other issues from suppliers are usually framed by this issue.