May 22, 2007

LISA SHARPLES NAMED PRESIDENT OF ALLRECIPES.COM, AMERICA’S LEADING ONLINE COMMUNITY OF HOME COOKS

Seattle, May 22, 2007 — Lisa Sharples, a Seattle-based online marketer and entrepreneur, has been named President of Allrecipes.com, the leading American online community for home cooks. The appointment, effective June 4, was announced today by Suzanne M. Grimes, President, Food & Entertaining, The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc., parent company of Allrecipes.com. Sharples will report to Grimes.

“I am delighted to appoint Lisa as President of Allrecipes.com. We will clearly benefit from her impressive leadership skills in sales, marketing, branding, and business management, particularly in the social networking space,” Grimes said. “Allrecipes.com holds a unique position in the online marketplace and has a terrific core team. As we celebrate our 10 year anniversary, Lisa comes to us at just the right time to chart the next stage of our business development and position us for continued long-term success.”

Sharples joins RDA from Classmates.com, where she had been Senior Vice President, Marketing since 2005. In this capacity, she helped define the business strategy of Classmates.com—a leader in online social networking—while enhancing the key metrics of this profitable business. She led a sizable team that included marketing, creative execution, customer retention and customer service. Sharples spearheaded the design and launch of many new features on the Classmates.com website which fueled the growth of the business overall in the last two quarters.

In 1995, Sharples co-founded Garden.com, Inc., where she served as Chief Marketing & Merchandising Officer and a member of the Board of Directors. As a leader of the online business from concept to project execution, she is credited with creating the Garden.com business model and plan that encompassed content, community, merchandising and online retail.

Her other business experience includes overseeing ArtCarved, the flagship retail jewelry brand at American Achievement Corporation, from 2003 to 2005, and, earlier, working for Silicon Graphics and Standish Mellon Asset Management.

Sharples holds a Bachelor of Arts from Bowdoin College and a Master of Management from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University.

Allrecipes.com is the No. 1 online community of home cooks, with 2 million registered members and 5 million unique visitors who typically view more than 80 million page views each month. During peak months those metrics reach 10 million “uniques” and 110 million page views. Allrecipes.com includes 40,000 recipes, all of which are created, tested and reviewed by participating home cooks. This July the site will celebrate the 10-year anniversary of its inception in 1997.

Under Grimes’s leadership, the Food & Entertaining division leverages the power of the food and cooking assets of RDA, the world’s largest food publisher. Its properties include, Every Day with Rachael Ray, the Taste of Home family of books, magazines and web sites and Taste of Home Entertaining, a home party plan company.

About Allrecipes
Allrecipes, the world’s largest social network of food and entertaining enthusiasts, receives more than 35 million annual visits from users who share and download recipes, reviews, photos, personal profiles, and meal ideas. For more than 10 years, the Seattle-based site has served as a dynamic, indispensable resource for cooks of all skill levels seeking trusted recipes, entertaining ideas, everyday and holiday meal solutions, practical cooking tips and food advice. As the fastest growing independent food Internet site, and part of the Reader’s Digest Association, Inc. food and entertainment division, Allrecipes provides insights into the kitchens and cooking passions of home cooks everywhere.

About Reader’s Digest
The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc. is a global publisher and direct marketer of books, magazines, music collections and video to customers in more than 70 countries. In addition to Food & Entertaining, its U.S. business includes three other divisions organized around consumer affinity interests—Home & Garden, Health & Wellness and RD Inspiration. The company publishes 77 magazines, including 50 editions of its flagship, Reader’s Digest, the world’s most widely read magazine. The company is privately held by a group of investors led by Ripplewood Holdings L.L.C. RDA’s headquarters are near Pleasantville, New York.