RD Canada lets go 15 people, including English editor-in-chief
At the end of January, the Reader's Digest Association announced sweeping staff cuts and financial restraint in the U.S., with indications that up to 8% of its worldwide workforce would probably be laid off. Other divisions worldwide including Canada, were to be dealt with in due course. Yesterday, Reader's Digest Canada let 15 full-time people go, including the vice-president and editor-in-chief of English Magazines, Peter Stockland (right above). Thirteen of the jobs were in Montreal, 2 in Toronto.
Characterizing it as its "recession plan", the company is grouping all its magazines under one, bilingual editor-in-chief in the person of Robert Goyette (left), previously in charge of the French language Sélection. Goyette's new position is vice-president book editorial and editor-in-chief, magazines. (Goyette is also chair of the board of Magazines Canada.)(It is uncomfortably ironic that RD's press release thanked Stockland for his "significant contribution" to the launch of Best Health and one of the most successful recent launches, Our Canada and More Our Canada. Best Health has formed the platform on which an almost identical magazine, Best You, is being launched in the U.S.)
posted by D. B. Scott at
11:59 pm
2 Comments:
There aren't many editors who have revitalized a powerhouse brand like Reader's Digest while launching a title with international potential. Only yesterday Peter Stockland would have been viewed as an indispensable leader.
As someone who has seen the before, the during and the after -- and taking nothing away from those who currently fill the role(s) -- Peter Stockland was and, indeed, is, an indispensable leader. We are all the better for having been guided by him.
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