Quad Secures Contract to Print the Iconic Reader’s Digest

This week, Quad, based in Sussex, Wisconsin, announced that it had secured a multimillion-dollar, three-year contract to completely bring the printing of Reader's Digest — the fourth largest magazine in circulation in the United States — under its umbrella.

This includes printing almost 20 million copies of the publication annually, as well as mailing of subscriptions to individuals and shipping bulk pallets to stores across the country to be sold at the newsstand. It is now the sole printer of the magazine's U.S. edition.

"We had a previous relationship with them, and they were looking to consolidate their operation," Daren Robarge, executive VP of manufacturing at Quad, says. "They were happy with our sales team, and to incorporate their business into our company. We had to assure them we could assemble the technology required to produce their work."

That technology included bringing several offset presses that had been sitting idle back online, with Robarge noting they needed to ensure they serviced the equipment thoroughly, and again had all the parts on hand for regular maintenance and operation. "The challenge was making sure we had those presses ready to go," he adds. "These presses hadn't been run in a while since we didn't have the volume.

"We also had to move a couple of machines from our West Virginia plant to Wisconsin for this, and had to purchase a couple of trimmers," Robarge continues. In addition, he notes that Reader's Digest had purchased some specialized equipment from their previous printer, and Quad found space to accommodate those components as well.

While Quad does print a number of periodicals, Reader's Digest's unique format required a bit of re-thinking. The magazine is printed two-up on a single sheet, "and then runs through the process of trimming it into two separate books at one time, on one trimmer," Robarge explains.

The actual move to Quad was fairly seamless, with Reader's Digest continuing to run with its previous printer until the third week of January, and Quad then taking over printing the first week of March. Reader's Digest publishes 10 times a year, and February was a "skip" month. "That was the opportunity [to move production.] When January finished printing, we were able to have that ready to go for the next month of production in March." Because the print runs are so large, he says that it takes roughly 2-3 weeks for each issue to be fully printed, finished, and sent into the mail stream.

"We are excited to move the printing and distribution of Reader's Digest magazine to Quad. This will begin with our May 2023 issue," says Mike Garzone, VP, Supply Chain and Corporate Facilities, at Trusted Media Brands, the publisher of Reader's Digest. "For more than 100 years, Reader's Digest has been a trusted and admired storyteller. Its content ranges from inspirational, feel-good tales from its readers, to cutting-edge topics and investigative journalism. Today Reader's Digest reaches more than 30 million people across print, digital, and social platforms. Quad provides an excellent full-service solution for Reader's Digest magazine. The Quad team managed a difficult and complex transition seamlessly. We were impressed with their commitment to becoming a valued business partner."

All in all, Robarge notes that right now, Quad is just handling the print work for Reader's Digest, but should they want to explore any of the other services the company offers, he knows Quad will be ready to step up. Already, according to Robarge, the approval process to go from files to printed product has been streamlined and made far simpler, bringing early wins to this new relationship.

"We really try to make the process of transition easy and frictionless — and we would do that for anyone," Robarge says. "That is just part of our company culture."

Toni McQuilken is the senior editor for the printing and packaging group.