Reader's Digest calls in restructuring specialists

Reports this afternoon from usually reliable Bloomberg News suggests that all is not well at Reader's Digest. The company is reported to have hired Kirkland & Ellis LLP to advise it on restructuring. Kirkland and Ellis are also well known for overseeing bankruptices.

Founded in 1922, RDA was a public company from 1990 through 2007, when it was bought by investor group led by Ripplewood Holdings LLC, which bought back all the shares for $1.6 billion and took the company private, assuming some $776 million in debt. Last month, Moody’s and S&P each lowered its ratings of RDA’s debt.

Reader’s Digest Association Inc. publishes 50 editions of its eponymous magazine including the Montreal-based Canadian edition and publishes 42 other magazines. Its 65 websites are said to have 18 million monthly unique visitors.

In January, RDA let go 3,500 people, representing 8% of its worldwide workforce. workforce and ordered furloughs across the board. It was called a "recession plan" that included unpaid vacations, suspension of its 401k pension plan and of most travel and all merit pay.