![\"Cover](\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/Cover-winter-2024-243x300-5.jpg\")
Five thousand copies of that first issue were printed; in just seven years, the signature magazine\u2019s circulation grew to 290,000. It became one of the best-selling magazines in the world, with a peak circulation of 17 million and 49 foreign editions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But as print magazine readership began to wane, Reader\u2019s Digest<\/em> <\/a>found it difficult to adapt in an increasingly digitized world. The magazine\u2019s parent company, Reader\u2019s Digest Association (RDA), filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection twice, first in 2009 and then in 2013 \u2014 and when the company emerged from Chapter 11 in 2014, Kintzer was at its helm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She was already very familiar with the company, having worked at RDA from 1998 to 2007 as vice president of global strategy and business redesign, general manager of North American operations, and finally as president of the u.s. publishing division. As president, she helped launch the Every Day with Rachael Ray magazine and brand, and green-lit the acquisition of AllRecipes.com (both brands have subsequently been sold).<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI definitely came back on a mission,\u201d Kintzer says of her return as CEO. \u201cPart of it was because I had been here before\u2014and had been here for better days\u2014and I was shocked at what had happened to the company.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re the anti-snark company.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n At the time, along with its flagship magazine and The Family Handyman<\/em><\/a>, RDA was home to Taste of Home, Birds & Blooms, Reminisce, Country Woman, Country, and Farm & Ranch Living.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kintzer\u2019s first fix was to change the corporate name. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t reflective of what the company was. Taste of Home<\/em> was \u2014 and still is \u2014 a huge food brand, and The Family Handyman<\/em> was number one in diy. And yet the company was known as Reader\u2019s Digest<\/em> \u2014 it seemed like a defensive posture, as opposed to being proud of both Reader\u2019s Digest<\/em> and the other brands.\u201d So Trusted Media Brands was born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She also recognized the need for a major culture shift. \u201cThe focus had to be digital first. We were a print-dominant company; the essence of the transformation had to be an entire shift of focus and mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The shift worked quickly and decisively. CNBC reported in 2020 that by 2017 \u2014 just three years into Kintzer\u2019s tenure \u2014 the company had eliminated its debt. Total digital revenue grew by 98% from 2015 to 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cReader\u2019s Digest<\/em> is \u2018the forever brand,\u2019\u200a\u201d Kintzer says. \u201cPeople grow up with it. It\u2019s multigenerational, and beloved within the home. I think it will always be a print magazine because that\u2019s part of its brand identity. The issue we faced was how to protect the brand in print while expanding it digitally, which is a different experience for the reader.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reading a print magazine is an experience that is carefully crafted by a magazine\u2019s creators. For example, Reader\u2019s Digest<\/em> features pages of reader-submitted jokes and anecdotes between articles tackling more serious subjects. \u201cYou read something of interest, you learn, then you chuckle,\u201d Kintzer says. \u201cThere\u2019s an emotional arc in a print product.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Digital content is a different story. \u201cIf you want to read jokes, you\u2019re going to click over to that page. If you want to read about a particular topic, you go there,\u201d she says. \u201cYou decide.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A common denominator does exist between print and digital: Trust. The user knows that the content they are getting is worth their time. \u201cThe value of being entertained, of learning something, is very important,\u201d Kintzer says. \u201cOur editors and content people are critical in ensuring that the magazine can live in another medium and still be Reader\u2019s Digest<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trusted Media Brands\u2019 publications, both print and digital, feature \u201ccontent inspired by you,\u201d Kintzer says. \u201cWe\u2019ve always been a consumer-first company. Without the community, we don\u2019t have anything.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The community expanded in 2021 when TMB acquired Jukin Media, a digital firm specializing in acquiring and licensing user-generated videos. With Jukin, TMB added several popular digital brands to its portfolio \u2014 FailArmy<\/a>, The Pet Collective<\/a>, People Are Awesome<\/a>, and WeatherSpy<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFailArmy and The Pet Collective are juggernaut video brands that are all about people contributing and enjoying, and that is really the definition of who we are,\u201d Kintzer says. (Often with a good side of laughter: The pool-bound skateboarder is a FailArmy video.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The acquisition also allowed Trusted Media Brands to expand its existing content into free ad-supported tv, or fast. The Family Handyman<\/em> now has a streaming channel \u2014 At Home with Family Handyman<\/a>. Another channel, The Healthy<\/a>, is a digital-only component of Reader\u2019s Digest<\/em>. People Are Awesome, The Pet Collective, WeatherSpy, and FailArmy are all available as streaming channels, and Taste of Home<\/a><\/em> and Birds & Blooms<\/a><\/em> have dynamic websites that invite the public to contribute content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are here to celebrate life,\u201d Kintzer says of the company\u2019s brands. \u201cWe\u2019re here to help you make a great meal, to teach you something, to make you laugh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re the anti-snark company.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Born and raised in Brooklyn \u201cbefore it was cool,\u201d Kintzer enrolled at Clark University with a clear career goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLike probably three-quarters of the student body, I went to Clark to become a psychologist,\u201d she recalls. \u201cSomewhere along the way, I thought about becoming a diplomat. And by the time I graduated, I wanted to go into international business.\u201d She ultimately graduated with a major in government and international relations and went on to climb the career ladder in marketing, sales, and consulting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy classes broadened my sense of the world,\u201d says Kintzer, who also interned at the Department of Commerce in Washington, D.C., and San Francisco. \u201cIt made me think so much more about the world at large\u2014and that has definitely stayed with me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kintzer insists that she hasn\u2019t strayed far from her original plans. \u201cI always say that being a CEO is part psychologist and part diplomat,\u201d she says, \u201cso I did, in fact, achieve those goals\u2014just in a much different way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re working in the business world, it\u2019s important to connect with people and be interested in who they are and what motivates them. That is part of the Clark ethos, and it serves you well in the business world\u2014or any other career. Business is about people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a lifelong lesson, as Kintzer has proven. One that\u2019s well worth digesting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Trusted Media Brands CEO Bonnie Kintzer \u201982 transformed a family of print magazines into a digital powerhouse with a precious ally: The public<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":20749,"template":"","meta":{"story_color":"var(--clarku-color-darker-blue)","story_headerImg":20749,"section_label":"Clark University Magazine","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[223],"displayed_author":[258],"featured":[],"topic":[232,277],"class_list":["post-12591","story","type-story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clark-community","displayed_author-melissa-lynch-95-mspc-15","topic-alumni","topic-clark-university-magazine"],"yoast_head":"\n
\n\n\n\n![\"Bonnie](\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/Kintzer-at-United-Through-Reading-event-1-1.jpg\")
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