If you’ve flipped through a magazine lately, ordered something weirdly specific online, or handled a stack of business mailers at work, there’s a good chance RR Donnelley (or RRD, as it’s often shortened) had a hand in it. But over the past few years, there’s been a steady stream of internet chatter: Is RR Donnelley going out of business? Are they filing for bankruptcy like so many other printing companies? Let’s dig into what’s really going on—with plenty of facts, not just speculation.
RR Donnelley: Still in Business in 2025
The short answer: RR Donnelley is not out of business. They’re still running, still shipping, still sending out invoices, and still reporting quarterly earnings. As of May 2025, there’s been no bankruptcy filing, no final “going out of business” announcement, and no sign of them shutting their doors.
So why all the concern? Frankly, it comes from two places: how tough the printing industry has gotten, and confusion with other print companies that haven’t survived. If you work with print, or you’ve watched sectors like newsprint and ad circulars shrink, you know the business is a lot rougher than it was ten or even five years ago.
Operations Are Pretty Much Business as Usual
If you drop by an RR Donnelley plant (they’ve got dozens in the U.S. and more worldwide), you’ll see things working pretty much as before. Trucks roll in for pickups. Employees still show up for shifts. Clients get their orders—magazines, catalogs, packaging, logistics services—just like always.
A recent look at their operations shows RRD is adapting where it can. They’ve closed a few facilities, usually smaller ones or those in markets with low demand. But the core of their business—commercial print, business communications, supply chain management, even digital support—continues to function.
The company’s most recent financial report for the first quarter of 2025 backs this up. Revenue for 2025 clocked in at $5.29 billion, which is actually a slight increase over last year. In a shrinking market, even holding steady can feel like a win.
Adapting to Survive: More Than Just Printing
Printing as we knew it in the ‘90s and 2000s is gone. RR Donnelley could’ve gone the route of so many household-name printers—cling to old business, delay tough choices, and fizzle out. They didn’t.
Over the past few years, RRD started pushing away from old-school print products, where demand keeps dropping. Instead, they’ve put a lot more energy into logistics services, digital content management, and business process support. They’re helping big companies with things like direct mail campaigns, heightened data security, and simpler supply chains.
They’re not just a printer anymore. When clients need a direct mail blast driven by variable data, or want secure printing for medical records, or even want help tracking and delivering shipments—RR Donnelley puts together the tech, the materials, and the logistics.
If you talk to buyers in publishing, healthcare, or retail, you’ll hear: RRD is still a big player, but they’re less about printing newspapers and more about helping businesses communicate smarter and faster.
The Hard Numbers: Money, Credit, and Financial Pressures
Let’s talk money, because that’s really what gets people asking about bankruptcy rumors. RR Donnelley’s finances have stress marks, no question. Their debt load is higher than what you’d expect for a company their size.
Fitch Ratings, which tracks credit and risk, gave RRD a “B” grade as of April 2025. In plain English? That’s a red flag that the company has higher-than-average risk compared to blue-chip firms. It’s not “about to default,” but it does mean lenders see more potential trouble than, say, the average bank.
The good news: they’re not losing ground as fast as some peers. Revenue actually ticked up a little in 2025, a rare feat for big-name printers. Management has responded to debt and margin pressure with cost-cutting, selective plant closures, and trying to shed less profitable business lines.
An example: in 2024, RRD closed a few underperforming printing centers and merged some logistics operations to save cash. Moves like these have helped the company hang on, though it’s a far leaner organization now.
For investors and employees, this is a mixed picture. The risk is real. Wall Street isn’t confident that RRD will hit rapid growth anytime soon. But they aren’t getting shut out of the market—suppliers get paid, customers get their product, and operations continue.
That 2016 Split: Three Companies, Lots of Confusion
One thing that comes up all the time: People think RR Donnelley “disappeared” a few years ago. What actually happened is the famous 2016 split. RR Donnelley spun itself off into three distinct businesses back then.
Here’s how it broke down:
– RR Donnelley (still called RRD) stayed with core business communications, print, logistics, and marketing support.
– LSC Communications took on book, magazine, and directory printing.
– Donnelley Financial Solutions grabbed the financial and regulatory printing contracts.
LSC wound up facing hard times and filed for bankruptcy in 2020. Donnelley Financial is still out there, focused on compliance services. But RR Donnelley, the parent, remained. Today, that split means there’s often confusion—people will hear about “LSC bankruptcy” or problems at another Donnelley spinoff and assume it’s RRD in trouble. That’s not true.
The key thing: RR Donnelley continues to be the main engine serving big brands’ ongoing business communications—not just printing booklets or flyers, but powering everything from secure healthcare mailings to retail fulfillment.
Why the “Going Out of Business” Rumors? Industry Woes and Internet Echo Chambers
So why does the “is RR Donnelley going out of business?” question keep coming up? Part of it is the steady stream of bad news out of the printing sector in general.
We’ve seen huge names disappear in recent years. LSC Communications, as mentioned, filed for bankruptcy. Quad/Graphics substantially scaled back. Even newspaper printers and small-town publishing chains have shuttered at record rates over the last decade.
Also, because RR Donnelley has cut facilities and trimmed the workforce, some folks on LinkedIn or Glassdoor assume that means a total shutdown is around the corner. But that’s not actually what’s going on. These are tough, defensive moves—meant to keep RRD afloat, not wind it down.
Rumors also get recycled online as soon as another print company bites the dust. RRD has made headlines for everything from strategic cutbacks to union talks to cost overruns, and stories sometimes blur the facts. As of this writing, though, there are zero official reports of an RR Donnelley bankruptcy or an impending collapse.
If you check their website, you’ll see ongoing press releases, job postings, investor updates, and regular contact points for clients. That’s what you’d expect from a functioning business, not a firm on its last legs. For more on companies in similar situations, check out this guide to business closures and rumors.
So, What’s Next for RR Donnelley?
RR Donnelley spent most of the last decade in triage mode—patching up balance sheets, consolidating factories, and watching print contracts get smaller every year. But they’re still here, still working with Fortune 500 brands, and still rolling out new hybrid services that blend logistics, tech, and communication.
Will they be around in five or ten years? That’s the big question, right? The honest answer is that it depends on how well they manage debt, keep pivoting away from shrinking print demand, and convince their biggest customers they’re still a critical partner.
If you’re a client or just someone tracking the industry, you should treat RR Donnelley like a company under real pressure, but not one headed out the door tomorrow. They’re hustling to adapt, doing more than just print, and figuring out how to be relevant—even as “paper first” companies disappear.
Of course, as always, things could shift with a sudden bad quarter, a big change in leadership, or a sharp jump in interest rates. But for now, RR Donnelley is open, operational, and still a go-to for high-volume business communications.
If you want to track the company’s future or just keep tabs on changes in printing and logistics, keep an eye on their earnings, news releases, and updates from the business press. In an industry where a lot of names have packed up and gone home, RR Donnelley is still doing business in 2025—and working to keep it that way.