Reader’s Digest is set to move

The landmark federal-style Reader's Digest building in Chappaqua, completed in 1939, was modeled on buildings in Colonial Williamsburg, VA.

READER’S DIGEST will – as of August 2010 – no longer be located among the trees on the 114-acre iconic campus in Pleasantville, NY, where the magazine has been headquartered since 1939.

As part of its bankruptcy reorganization plan approved early this year, RDA has leased office space in downtown White Plains, NY, for approximately 525 employees.  Another 125 staffers will join 175 already in New York and be consolidated at three floors in 750 Third Avenue, which will be considered corporate headquarters, CEO Mary Berner has said.

750 Third Avenue, New York, NY

RDA has subleased about 86,000 square feet of space from another downsized magazine publisher, Conde Nast, in the twin-tower midtown office center, also known as Grand Central Square.

The Pleasantville campus, actually located in the town on Chappaqua, was sold in 2004 for $59 million and the publisher has since leased the spacious property but has used less than half the space.

RDA, however, is not the only publisher to move.  NEWSWEEK moved within Manhattan last year and recently announced another move this August or September.  The staff at the former BUSINESSWEEK magazine this month will leave its longtime home near Rockefeller Center for the east side headquarters of its new owner, Bloomberg LP.  Hachette Filipacchi (ELLE, WOMAN’S DAY) is heading one block east to the Time & Life building from 50th and Broadway.  The ECONOMIST last month moved across town from West 57th Street to become neighbors with RDA at 750 Third Avenue.

In addition to the move, RDA will experience another 10% cut in staff.