Reuters
Rick Warren delivers the invocation during President Barack Obama’s inauguration.
The Purpose-Driven Connection is no more. Reader’s Digest, which is restructuring in Chapter 11, has broken off its joint publishing venture with evangelical pastor Rick Warren, according to the Associated Press.
The announcement comes less than a year after the publisher announced its partnership with Warren, who wrote the best-selling book “The Purpose-Driven Life” and and gave the invocation at President Barack Obama’s inauguration. Subscribers to the multimedia venture, called the Purpose Driven Connection, paid $29.99 for a year-long membership, which entitled them to a quarterly print magazine, a workbook, DVD curriculum for church group meetings and access to extra online content.
At the time the partnership was announced, Warren told the New York Times that the venture merged his message of charitable acts with the nearly 90-year-old publisher’s interest “in the practical aspects of helping people in their daily lives.” Now, Warren’s Southern California church will take over a revamped version of the endeavor. The magazine, which faced lagging subscriptions, will send it out its last issue this month and will go online in January, where content will be available for free.
“I imagine (Reader’s Digest officials) were hoping for this to explode, and it didn’t explode,” said Brian Bird, the magazine and website’s managing editor, who added that subscriptions were between 2,500 and 5,000 per month. “But it’s had slow, steady growth. It takes a long time for anything to really grow, especially in a competitive media culture.”
The venture wasn’t Reader’s Digest’s first connection with Warren and his Saddleback Valley Community Church. Bankruptcy court papers show the publisher donated $5,000 to the church in the year before its August bankruptcy filing.