P.M. BRIEFING : Reader’s Digest Publisher Plans Public Sale of Non-Voting Stock

Reader’s Digest Assn. Inc., which publishes the world’s largest-circulation monthly magazine, said today it plans to make a public stock offering of non-voting shares.

Shareholders, including trust funds established by the late founders Dewitt and Lila Wallace, charitable organizations and employees, would sell at least 10% of the 5.8 million non-voting shares outstanding in the offering, the company said.

It is the first offering made to the public since the magazine’s founding in 1922. Reader’s Digest itself would not participate in the offering.

Since the death of Lila Wallace in 1984, Reader’s Digest, based in Pleasantville, N.Y., has been operated by management-appointed by the boards of two funds and a trust established under Wallace’s will.