Reader's Digest closes chapter on Chinese edition

Susan Fraysse Russ, vice president of global communications at Reader's Digest Association (RDA) confirmed this with local media in mid June.

Subscribers have been receiving messages since last month, informing them of the magazine's "suspension" due to "uncontrollable factors". A customer service representative from Reader's Digest's Shanghai call centre told Campaign Asia-Pacific that the hotline will remain active until the end of August and that the suspension may be lifted in 2013, depending on directions from the US headquarters.

Reader's Digest began publishing the Pu Zhi (Mandarin for "general knowledge") monthly magazine in January 2008 under a licensing agreement with the Shanghai Press and Publication Development Corporation, selling it at US$1.89 (12 yuan) for each copy.

When it was launched, a target circulation of 420,000 copies were available at 43,000 convenience stores, book stores, subways, news-stands and kiosks across 43 cities.

The May issue, featuring Marilyn Monroe on the cover, was the last one published. Visitors to the homepage of www.puzhi.com.cn are now redirected to the Hong Kong website of Reader's Digest www.readersdigest.hk written in traditional Chinese characters, which are not commonly used among mainlanders.

The failure was blamed on the magazine's relatively high price, unclear readership targets and weak content. Netizens on Sina Weibo complained that the magazine had too many translated articles and too little localised ones. Some placed the blame on RDA going bankrupt in 2009.

The magazine contains an advertising insert section, just like in the US version, which Hari Ramanathan, regional strategy director of Y&R Asia, commented that weak content is the Archilles' heel that has led to slim advertising revenue.

"The reason for its death in China is simply that the product is irrelevant in this day and age. If you're below 40, belong to the middle-class and wanted to do some general reading on things that weren't time sensitive (i.e. news), the first place you'd look is the web where you'd find millions of things," Ramanathan explained.

"RD is the best proof that not changing the product to keep pace with the evolution of consumers is a guaranteed way to kill the brand," he concluded.