Reader’s Digest announced in November 2008 that it will work with evangelical pastor Rick Warren to produce a new magazine and a “Facebook for Christians” platform. In a report heavy with ideology, Stephanie Clifford of The New York Times treats the Warren deal, and a staff meeting at the corporate headquarters, as evidence that the company is turning more conservative:
After years of trying to broaden the appeal of Reader’s Digest, the publishers are pushing it in a decidedly conservative direction. It is cutting down on celebrity profiles and ramping up on inspiring spiritual stories. Out are generic how-to magazine features; in are articles about military life.
“It’s traditional, conservative values: I love my family, I love my community, I love my church,” said Mary Berner, the president and chief executive of Reader’s Digest Association.
It’s clear that Berner is speaking generally, offering a brief description of what she means by traditional and conservative values. Still, it would be helpful to know what church Berner attends and loves. Is she (gasp!) a flag-waving evangelical Protestant? It appears not: As part of an interview with Berner, Media Bistro mentioned that she’s an alumna of College of the Holy Cross. St. Pius V High School in the Bronx credits Berner as leading fundraising efforts on its behalf. Even a background document [PDF] from evangelical super agent A. Larry Ross Communications makes that much clear.
Clifford depicts Berner as a hypocrite:
“They are brands that may not be considered cool by the often elitist and self-absorbed standards of New York media,” she said. She had taken a car from Manhattan that morning, and wore a pink wool shirt-dress, patent leather Manolo Blahnik heels, and diamond hoop earrings.
… In an interview in her office, Ms. Berner addressed the change in direction. “It’s not as cynical as you think,” she said, adding that she does not usually dress in $600 shoes but in jeans and sweaters, a fact she had her assistant confirm.
Veterans of New York’s magazine industry, take note: If you want to criticize the industry, be sure to choose your mode of transportation and your clothing carefully, lest your shoes disqualify you. And, for God’s sake, if you’re such an elitist that you have an assistant, keep that person out if it.
I’m also struck by Berner’s “It’s not as cynical as you think” remark, and by Clifford’s use of it. Berner returns to that theme later in the story with this remark: “We don’t choose our partners to change the world, we choose them because we’re running a business. I guess it sounds cynical if you believe that to run a business to make money is cynical.”
Clifford never makes clear what is cynical about Reader’s Digest — with its history of cultural conservatism and bland, feel-good patriotism — renewing those themes or entering a partnership with Warren.
Early in her story, Clifford refers to the publisher’s “years of trying to broaden the appeal of Reader’s Digest.” John J. Miller of National Review critiqued the repackaging effort in this essay in Feburary 2002.
This period in the company’s history is marked not only by celebrity profiles but also by such absurdities as a 1,000th-issue party at which Christian Slater — yes, Christian Slater — and Maggie Gyllenhaal served as guest DJs. The New York Observer mocked the party in this article.
Clifford treats this period as the magazine’s high point, the time when the company tried to broaden its appeal, as compared to its now-cynical return to a more conservative editorial mix. What a world.
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Comments (16) |
June 20, 2009, at 1:24 pm
Just when you think the Times couldn’t get much sleazier or sink much lower, it manages to surprise its readers anew.
June 20, 2009, at 1:54 pm
Just goes to show that the NYT perception of Middle America has changed. Does the NYT really think Rick Warren is to the right of Middle America? Reporter should have asked if the new folks in charge are trying to turn Rick Warren into the new Oprah.
We always had the Reader’s Digest around the house growing up. I don’t recall it being religious at all. Maybe a story about Billy Graham once in awhile, but I don’t even remember that.
June 20, 2009, at 2:11 pm
One of the three publications you could find in any rural Irish home, besides “The Farmer’s Journal”, was “Ireland’s Own”, the “Sacred Heart Messenger” and the “Reader’s Digest”.
They’ve obviously cottoned-on to the fact that people who read the “New York Times” are not going to buy the “Reader’s Digest”, no matter how trendy the DJs, and are sensibly focussing on their natural marker.
Am I to take it that Ms. Clifford will now be cancelling her subscription due to this heinous lurch to the right?
June 20, 2009, at 2:52 pm
I haven’t read RD in 25 or more years. I’m surprised they ever got into celebrity “news”. I did enjoy the NYO story about the 1,000th issue party. That was funny.
June 20, 2009, at 4:46 pm
Martha, we had Catholic Digest and the St. Anthony Messenger — along with Reader’s Digest. My dad for awhile had a subscription to National Geographic, and my mom would pick up Good Housekeeping and Woman’s Day at the grocery store.
June 20, 2009, at 5:21 pm
Here’s the quote that stuck out like a sore thumb to me:
“As far as I’m concerned, I don’t care what the religion is, what the
spirituality is, as long as it’s legitimate, there’s a built-in community
and it’s global,” Ms. Berner said.
How does that cohere with the rest of the story and why didn’t the reporter ask Berner what she was talking about?
Loved the comment about the prep school chapel, too.
There is a lot of cultural elitism here, much as I hate to admit it, being a New Yorker.
June 20, 2009, at 7:11 pm
It strikes me that “Reader’s Digest” is doing exactly what “Newsweek” is doing: reducing circulation, identifying a core audience and concentrating on it, seeking like-minded partners.
I wonder if the Rick Warren connection was not there, would this article have been the same? Would it even have been written?
Will we see an article next week about “Newsweek’s Lurch to the Left”?
June 20, 2009, at 7:17 pm
Jill C., I should have also mentioned the “St. Martin” magazine, although that kind of replaced the “Messenger” in some households.
Now, if anyone can explain to me how an apostolate in honour of a 16th-century Dominican laybrother, son of a freed slave, mixed-race saint took off in Ireland, I’d be grateful
June 20, 2009, at 8:23 pm
The NYT couldn’t find Middle America with a map and a guide.
June 20, 2009, at 8:40 pm
If the NYT ever wants to find Middle America’s middle finger, I can show it to them.
June 20, 2009, at 9:32 pm
My wife has a part-time job stocking magazines in grocery and drug stores for a distributor. Magazines are in almost as much trouble as the newspapers, and a lot of magazines are being sent back after sitting in the racks for their allotted time. (The waste of trees has to be horrendous.)
Maybe the Digest figured out early what was in the recent Gallup poll—that nationwide, conservatives outnumber liberals by 2 to 1. I am aware of radio stations in Cincinnati and Indianapolis that are owned by Democrats, but they broadcast conservative talk shows—maybe the owners like to keep eating?
June 20, 2009, at 11:11 pm
I know that some on the left have already been thinking of Reader’s Digest as right-wing. I remember sitting in the adjunct faculty office at the college I work at, and a self-professed lefty (her term) picked up the student publication by the College Republicans. She was reading an editorial arguing that we ought to support the troops in their efforts to liberate Iraq. She expressed contempt for the view in a way that connected that sort of viewpoint with Reader’s Digest, making it clear that she thought they were both ultra-right-wing. This was during the 2004 election, I believe. So there’s already the perception out there.
June 21, 2009, at 11:50 am
It is right wing, if you consider patriotism to be love of country faults and all, heroism to be more than hollywood actors opening their mouths, jokes that make you laugh rather than cringe with the “F bomb” every other word, faith as part of life rather than “what those nuts believe,” and hope and change YOUR responsibility and not a hollow political slogan. I grew up on Readers Digest and enjoyed much of its “not from the front page” stories that were amazing and inspiring. Over the years it did try to gravitate toward celebrity profiles and it bogged down its worth. Glad to hear it might go back to some of its roots.
June 21, 2009, at 3:32 pm
Isn’t it dangerous to love ANYTHING “faults and all”.
June 21, 2009, at 8:14 pm
David,
Your mom must be a saint.
June 21, 2009, at 9:29 pm
David,
Isn’t it even more dangerous to think that the things you love can’t *have* faults, because they’re things *you* love? Like Barack Obama, I would guess, in your particular case.