Venerable Readers Digest Listed as "At-Risk" by Moody's

(MoneyWatch)  When I was growing up, one of the most reliable items found in everyone's home in our neck of the woods was the Readers Digest. Even today, it is the number one consumer magazine in the U.S. with over ten million subscribers, plus 40 million subscribers in 70 countries overseas. But now, at the age of 87, the half-pint magazine appears headed for a rocky stretch. Moody's has placed the Digest on its "Bottom Rung" list, not a good sign, as this is reserved for companies with a "high default risk and weak liquidity."

By my count, 40 of the 283 companies here and overseas on the Bottom Rung list are media operations. Additional at-risk companies include a number of printing companies, as well as quite a few entertainment and telecommunications companies.

Here are ten notable media companies on the list:

1. Charter Communications, Inc.
   
2. Cumulus Media, Inc.
   
3. Freedom Communications, Inc.
   
4. GateHouse Media Inc.
   
5. MediaNews Group Inc.
   
6. Morris Publishing Group Inc.
7. Radio One, Inc.
8. The Readers Digest Association, Inc.
9. Spanish Broadcasting System, Inc.
   
10. Univision Communications, Inc.

This is shaping up as a week for Bad News lists in the media industry.

Time magazine yesterday issued a deathwatch for ten big metropolitan dailies. The irony here is that if one were to compile a similar list for magazines, Time's name just might be on it.

Anyway, here is their list -- we have mentioned all of these papers at one time or another here at Bnet Media over the past year, and see no need to elaborate. But our own list would not stop at ten, since we essentially consider virtually every daily newspaper in America at serious risk until determined otherwise.

1. The Philadelphia Daily News.

2. The Minneapolis Star Tribune
3. The Miami Herald
4. The Detroit News
5. The Boston Globe
6. The San Francisco Chronicle.

7. The Chicago Sun-Times
8. The New York Daily News
9. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram
10. The Cleveland Plain Dealer