[新鲜书市]美国《读者文摘》濒临破产

Reader's Digest turns to Chapter 11

Reader's Digest Association, the venerable staple of doctors' waiting rooms and middle-class bedside tables, yesterday announced plans for voluntary bankruptcy as it became the latest victim of the advertising recession.

Equity investors led by Ripplewood Holdings, who announced the $2.4bn acquisition in November 2006, will lose their entire $600m investment.

The pre-packaged Chapter 11 filing, agreed with senior lenders but contingent on agreement with other lenders, marks the latest media industry deal struck at the peak of the credit-fuelled buy-out market to head towards the bankruptcy courts.

Reader's Digest, launched by a husband and wife in 1921 from one room under a Greenwich Village speakeasy, began as a mail-order collection of condensed articles from other magazines and evolved into a direct- mail pioneer and one of the world's largest publishers.

Nine of its 94 magazines have a circulation of more than 1m in the US alone, and its titles claim a combined global readership of 130m people in 78 countries.

But advertising revenue from the flagship magazine fell 18.4 per cent last year, and is down another 7.2 per cent in the first six months of this year, according to the Publishers Information Bureau.

“The deal was done at the height of the frothy investment banking model, and the company was saddled with $2.2bn worth of debt,” Tom Williams, chief financial officer, said.

Group revenues are down just 2 per cent this year, said Mary Berner, chief executive. However, as cashflows came in below the Ripplewood-led buyout group's expectations, it found itself struggling to make a $27m interest payment, due yesterday.

Ms Berner said the restructuring would not affect its operations or suppliers.

美国《读者文摘》公司(Reader's Digest Association)昨日宣布，计划申请自愿破产，该公司成为广告业衰退的最新受害者之一。《读者文摘》曾是候诊室及中产阶级床头历史悠久的必备之选。

2006年11月，以Ripplewood Holdings为首的股权投资者以24亿美元收购了该杂志，现在它们的全部6亿美元投资将损失殆尽。

该杂志事先准备好的破产保护申请，获得了高级借款方的同意，但要取决于它和其它借款方的协议。这是最新一桩在融资收购高峰期达成的媒体交易走向破产的案例。

1921年，在格林威治村一家地下酒吧的房间里，一对夫妇创办了《读者文摘》。一开始，它从其它杂志收集文章，摘要后汇集成书，然后通过邮购方式发给读者。后来该杂志演变成直接邮寄销售的先驱之一，并成为世界上最大出版商之一。

单是在美国，该杂志社旗下94种刊物中9种刊物的发行量就超过100万份，它的各类文章吸引着全球78个国家的1.3亿读者。

但是出版商信息局(PIB)的资料显示，《读者文摘》的旗舰杂志广告收入去年下降了18.4%，今年头6个月再度下滑7.2%。

“收购交易是在投资银行业务的泡沫高峰期进行的，公司背负了22亿美元的债务，”《读者文摘》首席财务官汤姆·威廉姆斯(Tom Williams)表示。

公司首席执行官玛丽·伯纳(Mary Berner)表示，集团收入今年仅下滑2%。然而，由于现金流低于以Ripplewood为首的收购集团的预期，公司无力偿还昨天到期的2700万美元利息。

伯纳表示，此次破产重组不会对其业务或供应商造成影响。