Publishing venture pairing Pastor Rick Warren and Reader's Digest crumbles within a year

By The Associated Press, Associated Press

Last update: November 4, 2009 - 7:44 PM

LAKE FOREST, Calif. - A joint publishing venture between influential pastor Rick Warren and Reader's Digest magazine has collapsed less than a year after it was announced with great fanfare.

The multimedia project, called the Purpose Driven Connection, will continue in a different form but be operated solely by Warren's Saddleback Church in Southern California starting next spring, church officials said Wednesday.

A quarterly print magazine of the same name will publish for the last time in mid-November, and its content will move to a free, expanded Web site starting in January, Warren said in a statement.

"The positive response from readers was so overwhelming we didn't want the content to be limited only to Americans who could afford a subscription to a magazine," Warren said.

The announcement comes months after Reader's Digest Association Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as it faced falling print circulation and looming debt payments. The Warren project, when unveiled, was portrayed as a partnership of two powerhouses — and a way for Reader's Digest to find new revenue. Company officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday.

The recession and changing reader habits have prompted cutbacks at many magazines, and some have folded.

Warren, author of the best-selling "The Purpose Driven Life," said subscriptions to the print magazine were lagging. For $29.99 a year, subscribers received the magazine, a workbook, DVD curriculum for church small group meetings and access to special features on a Web site.

Brian Bird, managing editor of the magazine and Web site, said subscriptions were between 2,500 and 5,000 per month.

"I imagine (Reader's Digest officials) were hoping for this to explode, and it didn't explode," Bird said. "But it's had slow, steady growth. It takes a long time for anything to really grow, especially in a competitive media culture."

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