MONTREAL - Reader's Digest, a mainstay in living rooms and waiting rooms for generations, has slashed its Canadian workforce by about 30% at its Montreal head office.

Plummeting sales led to the cuts, the company told QMI Agency in an e-mail.

The company, which has had 120 Canadian employees for the past few years, now has just 80. It publishes five titles, including the Canadian version of Reader's Digest and its French equivalent.

Reader's Digest remained Canada's top magazine by paid circulation in the first half of last year but sales fell to just over 552,600 from 885,000 in mid-2008.

The magazine was in danger of losing its top spot to Chatelaine, one of the few magazines that saw a jump in sales in 2012.

Two years ago, Reader's Digest took up nearly four stories of a downtown office tower. The company currently occupies just one floor in the building.

The national communications division, previously based in Montreal, was moved to New York.