Attack On R-Dig: James Brown joins the Readers Digest

The recently-out-of-bankruptcy Readers Digest desperation to try and find itself some sort of readership has signed up James Brown to do a monthly column:

"I really believe that it helps to write for an audience you are part of. In my 20s I wrote for NME and created Loaded, in my 30s I edited GQ and created Jack, and so in my 40s writing for Reader's Digest and running my own digital publishing venture Sabotage Times just seems right. The column is about enjoying yourself, simple as that," Brown added.

To be honest, James, when you put it like that, you make the Readers Digest sound like the lowest loop on a downward spiral of a career. "In my 50s, I shall be writing a free column taking a wry look at life for the Shepton Mallet Shopper. In my 60s, I shall be joint-editor of the local Neighbourhood Watch Newsletter. In my 70s, I shall be in charge of the Sunday Express."

Stuart Maconie is also joining the magazine, which makes two former NME people on the masthead. I suspect that it still doesn't really make the Readers Digest anything more than the magazine that Punch writers used to make jokes about.