ABSTRACT
Both these rights involve the condensation of the text of a literary work. Digest rights are the right to publish a condensed version of whole or part of a work in a single issue of a newspaper or magazine. Digest book condensation rights cover the right to publish a condensed version of the complete text in volume form, often accompanied by the condensed texts of other works. In each case, the major player in the field has been Reader’s Digest, with its magazine of the same name and its compendium condensedtext volumes. The Reader’s Digest Association was founded in the USA in 1922 and grew into a worldwide brand; it started operations in the United Kingdom in 1938. Its readership is recruited almost entirely through direct mail shots rather than through press advertising. It also has websites advertising its products. In August 2009 the US company announced that it was filing for voluntary
Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection with a view to reducing substantial debts and addressing a deficit in the pension fund. On 22 February 2011, the US company emerged from Chapter 11 with the aid of exit financing and a new board of directors. It filed for Chapter 11 again on 17 February 2013 but then exchanged most of its $465 million debt for shares and continues to trade. On 17 February 2010, the UK company filed for administration and in
April of that year the company was subject to a management buyout backed by Better Capital, a private equity company who closed down the book operations, including the hardback Select Editions and the paperback Of Love and Life series of condensed compendium volumes. UK circulation of the Reader’s Digest magazine is reputed to have fallen to less than 200,000 and in February 2014, Better Capital sold the UK company to media veteran Mike Luckwell for a nominal fee of £1 after writing off £23 million of investment. At the time of writing, it is not clear exactly how the new owner intends to continue, but the magazine is still being published and he has stated his intention to invest in online services, charging for website access and planning to expand into financial services for the over 50s. Reader’s Digest has thus had a rather chequered existence in recent
years, but the magazine and condensed books are still published in a
number of markets, and digest and condensation rights continue to feature in author-publisher contracts. Most of the rights acquired for both forms of publication have been for
the work of well-established authors with popular appeal, including Dan Brown, John Grisham, Barbara Taylor Bradford, Lee Child, James Patterson, David Baldacci, Ann Cleeves and Dick Francis as well as up-and-coming and debut authors; genres include thrillers, crime, romance, family drama and historical fiction. Book condensation rights are acquired for works of fiction and non-fiction; the majority of magazine digest rights are for works of non-fiction.
