The Readers Digest Association (RDA) has agreed to buy online food and cooking community site AllRecipes.com for $66 million, in an effort to spice up its brand with digital media.

Under the terms of the deal, Allrecipes.com will become a portal to Readers Digests other food-related Web sites, the companions to magazines such as Taste of Home, Light & Tasty and Every Day with Rachael Ray. Allrecipes.coms ad sales force will sell all food-related digital advertising for the parent company, and also promote the firms cookbooks, magazines and other food-related businesses on the Web. Currently, RDA works with rep firm Winstar Interactive Media.

Our acquisition of Allrecipes.com will provide us with a valuable digital platform to further leverage our position as the countrys leading food and cooking publisher, said Eric Schrier, president and CEO of RDA, in a statement. It will enable us to bring together online communities from the various RDA properties using the common platform of an industry-leading food and cooking affinity.

Quite a nice tidy deal, Readers Digest is clearly setting out to change its image in the marketplace.