TO BUSINESS EDITOR:

NEW YORK, Feb. 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Thomas O. Ryder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Reader's Digest Association, Inc. (NYSE: RDA), will present at the Merrill Lynch 7th Annual Advertising/Marketing, Education & Information Conference at The Palace Hotel in New York City on Tuesday, March 2, 2004.

The Reader's Digest presentation is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. It will be accessible via an audio-only Webcast on the Reader's Digest Investor Relations Web site, www.rd.com/corporate , or at www.events.ml.com , or by clicking http://www.wallstreetwebcasting.com/webcast/ml20 directly.

The link to the presentation will go LIVE just prior to the start of the presentation and will be archived for 14 days. The Webcast may be played on Windows Media Player or Real Player. This event requires that you register prior to accessing any of the Webcast and requires that you have "cookies" enabled for you browser.

For information about the conference, please call (

The Reader's Digest Association, Inc. is a global publisher and direct marketer of products that inform, enrich, entertain and inspire people of all ages and cultures around the world. Revenues were $2.5 billion for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2003. The company's principal Web site is www.rd.com . Global headquarters are located at Pleasantville, New York.

SOURCE  The Reader's Digest Association, Inc.