Business News
Karol Nickell Appointed Editor-in-Chief, RDA Home & Garden
Friday 24. July 2009 - The Reader's Digest Association, Inc. has named Karol Nickell as Vice President and Editor-in-Chief for its Home & Garden affinity, where she will be responsible for the affinity's brands based in Milwaukee including Birds & Blooms, Country, Farm & Ranch Living and Reminisce.
In the past year, the four magazines, which have a combined circulation of 4.5 million, also published 25 branded bookazines, calendars, newsletters and books; the monthly titles, Birds & Blooms, Country and Reminisce, received premier ABC audits of 1 million circulation or more, and the Birds & Blooms website, birdsandblooms.com, grew 31 percent in unique visitors and 45 percent in pages viewed.
Nickell will report to Alyce Alston, President, Home & Garden and Health & Wellness, who made the announcement.
“Karol has made important contributions to these brands and publications as a senior consultant over the past eight months, and I’m delighted that she has agreed to assume this essential position in an official capacity,” Alston said. “Given Karol’s exemplary record of accomplishment, I am confident that she will be a strong addition to our talented Home & Garden senior teams in Pleasantville, New York, Minnesota and Milwaukee.”
A highly accomplished magazine publishing executive with 20 years of experience, Nickell served as Vice President and Editor-in-Chief of Better Homes and Gardens from 2001 to 2006. She also was the founding Editor-in-Chief of Traditional Home and held numerous leadership roles at Meredith Corporation. In her new position, Nickell will be responsible for existing RDA Home & Garden brands and for creating additional revenue-generating extensions. She will also oversee and lead the affinity’s Milwaukee digital business direction and online strategy for the brands, as well as partnership and licensing.
During her tenure at Better Homes and Gardens, Nickell directed a highly successful repositioning, created the Better Home Better Living Contest, and helped oversee a revamped Better Homes and Gardens Test Kitchen. She initiated new editorial sections and programs that focused on literacy, family health, community service and social, ethnic, and cultural diversity. While the Editor-in-Chief of Traditional Home, she initiated the Built for Women Show House in New York City. Top interior designers created rooms for leading women, including Barbara Walters, Bette Midler, Tina Turner, Diane Sawyer, Donna Karan, Elizabeth Taylor, and Liz Smith to benefit the Breast Cancer Research Fund.
A graduate of Iowa State University with a Bachelor’s degree in interior design and journalism, she was the Scripps Howard Teaching Excellence Fellow at the Greenlee School of Journalism at her alma mater. Her postgraduate work includes executive financial courses at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the completion of her MBA at Iowa State University. Nickell is currently serving in her second term with the Board of Directors of the United Way of America.
The RDA Home & Garden affinity, with a total audience of 27 million, is a leading publisher of print and digital products for the home and garden community. Its brand positioning is “Connecting Lives, Building Dreams.” The division has total magazine circulation of 6 million and also publishes numerous Special Interest Publications as well as “Bookazines” on various topics sold at retail. Other titles include do-it-yourself magazines The Family Handyman, the nation’s No. 1 title in its category, and Fresh Home, a new magazine that targets couples and women.