F.A.C.E. Lift for 'Reader's Digest'

This weekend's New York Times featured a lengthy story by David Segal about the future of the Reader's Digest Association, publishers of Reader's Digest, Every Day With Rachael Ray, and dozens of publications worldwide.

It's been a tough year for RDA, what with filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in August. The company also laid off 300 employees and decided to move away from the 114 acre Chappaqua, New York campus where it's been published for nearly half a century in favor of new digs at 750 Broadway, the building currently occupied by Portfolio.com, The Economist, Women's Wear Daily, and others.

According to the Times, in addition to the move, the company will be rebranding itself in the coming year as it tries to get from under its $2.2 billion debt. Mary Berner, RDA's extremely well-compensated CEO, did not share the company's new name, but if the motivational posters hung around the soon-to-be-vacant Chappaqua offices (as described by Segal) are indication, Reader's Digest's folksy image is about to go corporate—very corporate.

The posters trumpet a new company-wide philosophy called F.A.C.E., which stands for "Fast, Accountable, Candid, and Engaged." As far back as August, paidContent's Rafat Ali was reporting on the company's "Faceplan," which seems to have trickled down from the boardroom into the cubicles in the last few months.

Moving away from the magazine's roots as the original aggregator of uplifting stories, down-home humor, and news you can use, one of the F.A.C.E. posters calls the company, a "multibrand media and marketing company that educates, entertains and connects audiences around the world."

Sounds impressive! And with a rate base of 8 million readers in the U.S. alone, the flagship magazine still has a huge audience to educate, entertain, and connect with. Now if they can only get their debt under control.

But there's one thing they can educate us about right now: What's the company gonna be called?