Toast - Reader's Digest UK

Sliced Bread

BBC

Health & Fitness

4.6 • 634 Ratings

🗓️ 7 November 2024

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Why did we lose Reader's Digest magazine when it is still going in America?

The BBC Business journalist, Sean Farrington, discovers what happened to the brand which started over a hundred years ago and became the most widely read magazine in the world.

Alongside him is the serial entrepreneur, Sam White, ready to offer her opinions on the business's fortunes.

How did a magazine which pinched articles from other publications become so successful? And why did it end up toast in the UK?

Sean speaks to: - Sir Alexander McCall Smith, the best-selling author of The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency who also wrote for The Reader's Digest - Richard Junger, Professor of Communication at Western Michigan State University - Tom Browne, a former editor of Reader's Digest UK - Gary Hopkins, a former owner of the business's UK division - Jason Buhrmester, Chief Content Officer for Magazines & Books at Trusted Media Brands which owns the Reader's Digest brand, still publishes it in America and licenses it for publicaiton in other parts of the world.

Produced by Jon Douglas. Toast is a BBC Audio North production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.

You can email the programme at [email protected]

Feel free to suggest topics which could be covered in future episodes.

Sliced Bread returns for a new batch of investigations in December, where Greg Foot investigates so-called wonder products to find out whether they really are the best thing since sliced bread. In the meantime, Toast is available in the Sliced Bread feed on BBC Sounds.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Before this BBC podcast kicks off, I'd like to tell you about some others you might enjoy.
0:05.1	My name's Will Wilkin and I Commission Music Podcast for the BBC.
0:08.7	It's a really cool job, but every day we get to tell the incredible stories behind songs,
0:13.5	moments and movements, stories of struggle and success, rises and falls, the funny, the ridiculous.
0:19.1	And the BBC's position, at the heart of British music
0:21.7	means we can tell those stories like no one else.
0:24.5	We were, are and always will be right there at the centre of the narrative.
0:28.6	So whether you want an insightful take on music right now
0:31.3	or a nostalgic deep dive into some of the most famous and infamous moments in music,
0:36.1	check out the music podcasts on BBC Sounds.
0:40.0	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:44.0	You're about to listen to the latest series of Toast.
0:47.2	Episodes will be released weekly wherever you get your podcasts.
0:50.8	But if you're in the UK, you can listen to the latest episode seven days earlier than anywhere else, first on BBC Sounds.
1:00.6	Hello, we're back for another brand new run of the BBC Radio 4 series, Toast, where we look at amazing business ideas that offered a lot to customers, but somehow ended up toast.
1:13.5	I'm Sean Farrington with me, of course, is the entrepreneur Sam White. Sam, hello.
1:20.0	Hello, darling. How are you? I'm well. It's lovely to see you again. You too.
1:24.3	You're in the dark about what's coming up. We don't tell you what topic we've been
1:28.7	researching. The end of it though, crucially, Sam's going to give us a professional opinion
1:32.5	on why this particular brand has disappeared from the UK. Should we do it? Absolutely.
1:41.2	Right then Sam, so far on toast, we've never discussed a magazine.
1:46.2	Okay.
	...

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