Reader's Digest: We're doing fine in Asia, despite bankruptcy proceedings in US

After news of the bankruptcy filing broke, the Asia-Pacific organisation issued a statement to politely ask the media to keep in mind that it is an entirely separate business—unaffected by the woes of its North American counterpart.

Indeed, Walter Beyleveldt, Asia-Pacific managing director and publisher, told Campaign Asia-Pacific this morning from Sydney that the Reader's Digest Asia has just wrapped up a "tremendous" year and is very positive about its "go-forward position".

"We are very fortunate in this region to be almost 100 per cent self-sufficient," he said, adding that the company handles all its own editorial, creative, promotions, and customer-service operations. "The debt is on their books, not on ours."

More importantly, the Asia-Pacific organisation is more diversified than the US one, which tends to focus on the publication alone. By contrast, Beyleveldt said 75 per cent of revenue in Asia-Pacific comes from non-publishing sources, chiefly the sale of books, music, DVDs, and other merchandise, which the company sells both through direct mail and online. 

Beyleveldt, in fact, is a believer in the continuing value of physical goods, be they magazines, books or DVDs. Moreover, he sees growing opportunities for his company as other companies back away from physical products, leaving the field open. 

"While there is growing momentum for digital products, I think there are still a lot of years left for the physical products," he said, adding that the industry also has lessons yet to learn about maximising the potential of digital media. "I'm not convinced that readers are engaging as much with the digital product as they are with the physical ones."

This is not to say the company is ignoring digital. In addition to English, Reader's Digest publishes in Chinese and Thai, producing different print editions and websites for each market. Digital editions are also available through Apple's Newstand and Google Play, and the company is working on more app-oriented offerings. The majority of publication revenue comes from subscriptions, Beyleveldt said.

Apart from Australia and New Zealand, Singapore and Malaysia represent the company's biggest markets, and Beyleveldt said the company is pleased with the performance of its Chinese-language editions in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Licensing and distribution agreements exist in other markets, such as Indonesia.

The company's Trusted Brands programme is also a strong business, Beyleveldt said.