(no subject)

[novapsyche]

Reader's Digest to file for Chapter 11 protection -- As a barometer of the nation's economic health, this indicator is a horrible sign.

Obama disses marriage law as Justice defends it -- "President Barack Obama insisted Monday he still wants to scrap what he calls a discriminatory federal marriage law, even as his administration angered gay rights activists by defending the it [sic] in court." Sounds like Marriott owners sympathizing with a woman raped on its premises and suing the hotel even as its lawyers blame her for her own attack.

Comments

[guppiecat]

How is Reader's Digest a barometer of the nation's health?

Circulation rates have been down everywhere, and has hit the hardest on non-intellectual magazines and newspapers. I am unsurprised that Reader's Digest is impacted. I would expect the same of other periodicals that are high in fluff and low in content (TV Guide, People, etc). You can't make money turning trees into crap when crap is getting less valuable and trees more so.

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

I'm not saying that RD has been an example of keen economic success, but it is a periodical that could be described as time-honored. While I would not put its potential demise on the same level as that of LIFE, I would perhaps as that of LOOK. I couldn't be even remotely described as a conservative, but I do put some stock in elements of culture that represent tradition. RD is one of modern American culture's traditions, and it means something when Americans have withheld support to the point of the magazine's bankruptcy.

TV Guide has lost out probably to the fact that people with cable can just press a button to find out what's coming on later. As for People, I think those types of magazines are the hardest to kill/die, as some people will always be obsessed with the lives of celebrities as a manner of escapism. Michael Jackson's estate, for example, was not the only beneficiary of interest in MJ's death.

[fadedpaladin.livejournal.com]

I grew up biking distance from the RD headquarters. I wonder what'll happen with it now.

Also, a news link for ya...
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2009/08/as-of-friday-august-14-2009-fdic-is.html