The Reader's Digest Association, Inc., Names Eric Schrier as Editor-in-Chief of All Products.

Business Editors

PLEASANTVILLE, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--January 6, 2000

Schrier Joins RDA from Time Inc. to Direct Editorial Content and

Quality of Magazine, Book, Entertainment and Internet Efforts

Winner of National Magazine Awards Will Apply Diverse Media

Experience in Key Role in Company's Growth Strategy

The Reader's Digest Association, Inc., publisher of the world's most widely read magazine, today announced the appointment of Eric W. Schrier, recently president and CEO of Time Inc Health, as editor-in-chief of all the company's products.

Mr. Schrier has more than 20 years of editorial and publishing business experience that includes the launch, redesign and repositioning of several magazines, and six National Magazine Awards. He also has had considerable success extending magazine franchises into other print, electronic and digital media.

As editor-in-chief of The Reader's Digest Association, Schrier will be responsible for the editorial content and quality of all Reader's Digest products and for customer satisfaction with those products, including the U.S. and international editions of the flagship Reader's Digest magazine, the company's special interest magazines, general interest and reference books, Select Editions condensed book series, and the company's offerings in music and video.

The editors of the company's magazines, including Christopher Willcox, editor-in-chief of Reader's Digest, will continue in their current roles and report to Mr. Schrier.

Thomas O. Ryder, chairman and CEO of The Reader's Digest Association, Inc., noted that Schrier will be the first person to manage editorial development of all the company's products since DeWitt Wallace, the company's founder. "Eric Schrier joins Reader's Digest at a critical time in our efforts to build on our considerable assets. He will play a pivotal role in our expansion strategies because they all grow from the historic strengths of the Reader's Digest brand, our editorial quality and the enormous trust our readers place in our products."

Ryder said, "Few people in the publishing world can match Eric's breadth of skills, judgment and integrity. He is not only a very talented and experienced editor, he is a proven multi-media entrepreneur who has worked in all media and begun and built successful businesses in them.

"Eric understands the synergies and opportunities that exist across media and the role that the Internet can play in expanding a brand like Reader's Digest. And he knows editorial quality. His experience fits perfectly with our current worldwide growth strategy to expand and leverage our strengths in such important areas of consumer interest as home, health, family, finance and faith.

"All around the globe, we have begun an intense effort to ensure that Reader's Digest magazine will continue to be the most read, most engaging, most trusted and most relevant source of information that consumers find anywhere," Ryder said. "However, Eric also will aggressively pursue every opportunity to improve and extend the magazine and our magazine business, whether by assuring editorial quality, developing and acquiring new products, or building an effective Internet presence."

Schrier, 48, has served for the past five years as president and CEO of Time Inc Health, the multi-faceted health information business he developed around Health, the company's flagship magazine he founded in 1987 and later sold to Time Inc. As CEO, he extended the franchise into other print and electronic media including books, television, video, radio and the Internet, and marketed its products to managed care and pharmaceutical companies. He directed all of Time Inc Health's editorial efforts when Health won four National Magazine Awards.

From 1990 to 1995, Schrier was the editor-in-chief of Time Inc.Ventures, where he evaluated new magazine concepts, acquisitions, franchise extensions and growth markets. During his tenure, Time Inc.Ventures launched Martha Stewart Living, This Old House, and Vibe. He was also responsible for repositioning and redesign efforts of Time Inc. Venture's 13 existing titles and for development of early on-line strategies.

Schrier began his career in marine biology before launching Science 80, the first science magazine for a consumer audience. Under Schrier's editorship, the magazine won two National Magazine Awards. Later, he founded Hippocrates, the consumer health magazine that ultimately became Health.

Schrier said, "Reader's Digest is one of the premier franchises in all of publishing, and it is an honor to help Tom and his team strengthen and expand the company across media and across continents. The Reader's Digest brand enjoys extraordinary trust around the world, and its products help and inspire millions of customers every day. From where I sit, any company making such a difference in the lives of so many people offers an ideal editorial platform on which to build."

Reader's Digest has 13 million subscribers in the United States and nearly 100 million total readers around the world each month. It is published is 48 editions and 19 languages. Other Reader's Digest magazine titles include: American Woodworker, Family Handyman, Walking, Selecciones (the Spanish-language Reader's Digest edition circulated in the United States), Moneywise (a United Kingdom-circulated financial advice magazine), the Reader's Digest Large Edition For Easier Reading, and the investment analysis titles of Benchmark, a Hong Kong publisher acquired by Reader's Digest last year.

The Reader's Digest Association, Inc., has launched an intense growth strategy based on the company's core strengths -- editorial excellence, brand equity, consumer trust, direct marketing skills, a vast consumer database and global reach.

The strategic plans include expansion of magazine publishing ventures under the Reader's Digest brand and investment in and development of Internet sites to cross-promote, market and supplement the magazines as well as new lines of published and non-published products. The company has announced several growth initiatives, including:

-- Launch of gifts.com, an on-line gift-shopping service that is a

joint venture with StarTek, Inc., of Denver (NYSE: SRT).

-- Acquisition of Books Are Fun, an Iowa-based company that markets

books directly to consumers.

-- A partnership with and investment in BrandDirect Marketing to

create membership clubs around branded Reader's Digest products,

including special interest magazines.

-- Partnerships with Torchmark, Inc., and the American International

Group, Inc., to market branded insurance products utilizing the

Reader's Digest brand and marketing database.

-- Partnership with First USA to market co-branded credit cards.

-- An on-line health information partnership with Healtheon/WebMD

that includes development of a Reader's Digest health site and

cross-promotion opportunities.

-- Partnership with and investment in hardware.com, an on-line home

improvement products retailer, to build on the equity of Reader's

Digest's two do-it-yourself magazines and market strength in

do-it-yourself books.

(The Reader's Digest Association, Inc., (NYSE: RDA,RDB) (www.readersdigest.com) is a global publisher and direct marketer of products that inform, enrich, entertain and inspire people of all ages and all cultures around the world. Worldwide revenues were $2.5 billion for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1999. Headquarters are located in Pleasantville, New York.)