The Reader's Digest Association brought down the curtain on its rocky, 17-year ride as a public company when private equity giant Ripplewood completed its $2.4 billion buyout yesterday and installed Mary Berner as the new CEO.

Berner, the former CEO of Fairchild Publications, replaces Eric Schrier, who will become a consultant to RDA and Ripplewood.

Ripplewood is also rolling up into RDA two other companies that it already owns: Direct Holdings Inc., which mainly consists of the Time Life music business that sells albums on late night TV infomercials; and WRC Holdings, publisher of the schoolhouse favorite My Weekly Reader and related properties.

The addition of the two smaller companies will cost Ripplewood an additional $194 million, and push the total price tag for the three deals to $2.6 billion.

Berner on Day One of the new job was exuding the usual optimism with few particulars. "The strategy is one of building on what is there," she said.

RDA's assets include the pocket-size Reader's Digest magazine, which has cut its U.S rate base to 10 million, the hugely successful start-up Everyday with Rachel Ray, Fun with Books and QPS.

Berner is a respected publishing executive, but burnished much of her credentials by boosting ad sales when she worked at Si Newhouse's most profitable Conde Nast magazine, Glamour. She then became the CEO of Fairchild shortly after Newhouse acquired it from Walt Disney Co. in 1999.

Berner resigned from Fairchild in early 2006.

So far, Berner is offering few insights. "I have to get inside and see what we have," she said, even though she has been quietly strategizing for months with the new owners.

She said she believes Weekly Reader has life "beyond the classroom" and the Time-Life TV marketing efforts can help move music and video from throughout the RDA operation. "We have one of the largest music collections in the world," she said.