Reader’s Digest Ending Today’s Best Nonfiction

by Jim Milliot -- Publishers Weekly, 8/6/2008 7:35:00 AM

Today’s Best Nonfiction, a line of books published by Reader’s Digest since 1989, will cease publication in the U. S. after “Edition 102” is published in February 2009. The company’s other lines of Reading Series -- Select Editions, The Best Mysteries of All Time, and The World’s Best Reading in the U.S. -- continue to be published in the U.S. and worldwide and, according to a spokesperson, “remain a highly profitable part of the business.” Increased competition for nonfiction readers, particularly from online retailers, had resulted in a “significant” decline in TBN’s sales, the spokesperson said.  

With TBN closing, RD is making several organizational changes in the Reading Series unit. Jim Menick has been named executive editor, US Reading Series, reporting to Harold Clarke, president and publisher, Books, Music and Trade Publishing in the RD Community group. Menick will succeed v-p and global editor-in-chief Laura Kelly in her U.S. responsibilities, and the global role will be eliminated. Kelly is working with Menick on the transition and will leave the company in early September. Joe McGrath, TBN’s managing editor, is also leaving the company along with senior editor Barbara Clark. Gary Arpin, executive editor, Select Editions International Editions, will continue in his international role, reporting to Clarke, and will also oversee the Global Reading Series rights department, which will be led by Carol Staudter.

Today’s Best Nonfiction was launched to complement the flagship direct-mail condensed fiction series, Select Editions. Over time, the editors selected and edited more than 400 nonfiction books by a diverse lineup of authors like Colin Powell, Stephen Ambrose, Christopher Reeve and Walter Isaacson.