• by Erik Sass , August 15, 2011

A weak print advertising environment and broader economic woes contributed to an unexpectedly weak quarter for the Reader's Digest Association, which saw total revenues slip 6.2% in the second quarter to $409.4 million.

While pointing to positive trends in the future, Tom Williams, RDA president and CEO, conceded that "our business continued to face a number of challenges this quarter," adding, "we are not satisfied with our performance."

RDA attributed the revenue decline mostly to weak ad sales at its Lifestyle & Entertainment Direct unit, a direct-marketing unit that sells products such as music compilations and video products under license from the Time Life brand, as well as fitness products and original music.

Total revenues at RDA's global direct marketing businesses fell 19.3% to $238.5 million.

On the print advertising front, flagship Reader's Digest actually saw ad pages increase 4.4% in the first half of 2011, and revenues at RDA's "Reader's Digest Community" segment increased from $64.7 million to $67.9 million.

But it wasn't enough to offset a steep "unexpected" decline at Every Day with Rachael Ray, where ad pages fell 15.1% in the first half of the year and 18.1% in the second quarter, according to the Publishers Information Bureau, leading to "significant losses."

In April it was announced that Mary Berner was stepping down from her post as president and CEO of RDA, where she was replaced by Williams. Meanwhile, the company is reportedly on the auction block for $1 billion -- a steep discount from the $2.8 billion purchase price paid by Ripplewood Holdings for the company back in 2007. In August 2009 Berner was forced to take RDA into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after it failed to make a $27 million payment on $1.6 billion of senior secured debt.