• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, October 31, 2011

Meredith Corp., the nation’s largest women’s interest publisher, is set to expand its portfolio of food titles with the acquisition of Every Day With Rachael Ray and its related digital properties from their previous owner, the Reader’s Digest Association.

Meredith said it also finalized a 10-year licensing agreement with Watch Entertainment Inc., the company established by the celebrity TV chef to manage all aspects of her media and brand presence.

Every Day Wth Rachael Ray publishes 10 times per year with a rate base of 1.7 million and has an estimated audience of 7.4 million. The first issue published by Meredith will be for February 2012. As part of the transition, Christine Guilfoyle is rejoining the magazine as publisher, reprising her previous role as the title’s launch publisher from 2005-2007. Since then, Guilfoyle has served as publisher of Women’s Wear Daily and Meredith owned More.

Meredith national media group president Tom Harty said the acquisition of Every Day With Rachael Ray was part of a larger strategy to increase the company’s content offerings (and advertising opportunities) in the food category. Here, recent moves have included the launch of Recipe.com; acquisition of the EatingWell Media Group; introduction of six new Special Interest Media food titles; and expansion of Meredith’s food content to tablet platforms including the iPad, NookK Color, and Kindle Fire.

The Reader’s Digest Association first revealed that it would be putting Every Day With Rachael Ray up for sale in the first half of October, explaining that its ability to expand the brand was limited by its agreement with Rachael Ray herself, who retains control of her media brand and presence in areas outside the print magazine.

RDA President and CEO Robert E. Guth explained: “Because our agreement limited our participation to producing just a magazine, we were unable to expand the brand and its content across multiple platforms. Going forward, it was not a fit with our master brand strategy.”

Every Day With Rachael Ray was well-received after its 2005 launch, but like many other magazines has suffered during the downturn. In the first nine months of 2011, total ad pages were down 21.3% to 401, per the Publisher’s Information Bureau. In the first half of the year, newsstand sales fell 16.9% to 239,151.