PARIS, DEC. 17, 2001 (Zenit.org).- The Bayard publishing group of France has purchased Catholic Digest, one of the largest-circulation Catholic magazines in the United States.
The pocket-size monthly magazine prints 400,000 issues and has a readership of 2.7 million. Founded in 1934, Catholic Digest had been published by St. Thomas University in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota.
Bayard´s $8.16 million acquisition includes the publisher of the magazine, Carillon, and other activities that relied on the university, the French Catholic newspaper La Croix reported.
The editorial board of the magazine will move to New York, to the premises of the Twenty Third society, which belongs to Bayard. This enterprise is associated with The Owl Group in Toronto (publishers of children´s magazines) and Novalis in Montreal.
Bayard is the most important Catholic publishing house in France. It publishes La Croix, as well as Le Pèlerin, one of the largest weeklies. Bayard has 1,600 employees and $344 million in annual revenues.
