An American institution of sorts hit some seriously choppy waters today.  The Reader’s Digest Association, which is behind the little paper books that have littered coffee tables for generations, has announced that it will declare bankruptcy.

Chapter 11 is the flavor of bankruptcy that’s on the table.  Stephanie Clifford reported, “The value of the company will be much lower under the restructuring.  Reader’s Digest’s $2.2 billion in debt will be reduced to $550 million, according to the agreement it has already struck with the majority of the banks.  Ripplewood had bought Reader’s Digest for $2.8 billion in 2007 in a leveraged buyout.”

Which sounds pretty stunning, all in all - those are some huge numbers.  They stand as big signs that things went very wrong.

The good news is that the little Reader’s Digest books should keep getting produced as usual, and all of the Reader’s Digest employees should be able to keep their jobs.

This development isn’t half as bad as it could be, then, and considering how so many print establishments have been crippled, might even be viewed in a positive light.