Quality over quantity: Who's doing it

TV Guide, October 2005

ò Eliminated 3M sponsored sales for a rate base of 3.2M

ò Cut paid circulation from 9M to 4.5M.

ò Went from having

140 different editions to 1.

ò Overhauled design to full-size, four-color format, increased editorial content.

Effect: 2007 ad pages 511.22 for first half, 2006: 393.46, 2005: numbers unavailable.

Time Magazine, January 2007

ò Cut rate base by 18.8 percent, dropping from a circulation of 4M to 3.25M.

ò Increased newsstand price by $1

to $4.95.

ò Added style, travel and leisure content to select copies, which were then sent out to 800,000 of the publication's wealthiest readers.

Effect: Revenues and ad pages stay effectively flat

Readers Digest, January 2008

ò Plans to cut rate base from 10M to 8M

ò "It's more cost-effective to let go

subscribers who are more expensive to get or keep" - Eva Dillon, RDA president and group publisher

ò Began selling back cover to advertisers

Effect: Too early to say, but with all the other shake-ups going on at RDA, it seems that this move is part of a calculated effort to push ad sales.