Reader's Digest is an American general-interest family magazine,
published monthly. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, it now has its
headquarters in New York City. The magazine was founded in 1922, by DeWitt
Wallace and Lila Bell Wallace. For many years, Reader's Digest was the
best-selling consumer magazine in the United States, losing the distinction in
2009 to Better Homes and Gardens. According to Mediamark Research, it
reaches more readers with household incomes of $100,000+ than Fortune, The
Wall Street Journal, Business Week and Inc. combined.
Global editions of Reader's Digest reach an additional 40 million people in more
than 70 countries, with 49 editions in 21 languages. It is believed that the
printing system MEPS was used to achieve this multi language translation. It has
a global circulation of 10.5 million, making it the largest paid circulation
magazine in the world. It is also published in Braille, digital, audio,
and a version in large type called Reader's Digest Large Print. The
magazine is compact, with its pages roughly half the size of most American
magazines'. Hence, in the summer of 2005, the U.S. edition adopted the
slogan: "America in your pocket." In January 2008, it was changed to: "Life
well shared." History
= Inception and growth = The magazine was started by DeWitt
Wallace while he was recovering from shrapnel wounds received in World War I.
Wallace had the idea to gather a sampling of favorite articles on many
subjects from various monthly magazines, sometimes condensing and rewriting them,
and to combine them into one magazine. Since its inception, Reader's Digest has
maintained a conservative and anti-Communist perspective on political
and social issues. The Wallaces initially hoped the journal could
provide $5,000 of net income. Mr. Wallace’s continuing correct assessment
of what the potential mass-market audience wanted to read led to rapid
growth. By 1929, the magazine had 290,000 subscribers and had a gross
income of $900,000 a year. The first international edition was published in
the United Kingdom in 1938 and was sold at 2 shillings. By the 40th anniversary
of Reader’s Digest, there were 40 international editions, in 13 languages
and Braille, and it was the largest-circulating journal in Canada,
Mexico, Spain, Sweden, Peru and other countries, with a total international
circulation of 23 million. The magazine's format for several
decades consisted of 30 articles per issue, along with a vocabulary page, a
page of "Amazing Anecdotes" and "Personal Glimpses", two features of
funny stories entitled "Humor in Uniform" and "Life in these United
States", and a lengthier article at the end, usually condensed from a published
book. These were all listed in the Table of Contents on the front cover. Each
article was prefaced by a small, simple line drawing. In recent years, however,
the format has greatly evolved into flashy, colorful eye-catching graphics
throughout, and many short bits of data interspersed with full articles. The
Table of Contents is now contained inside. From 2003 to 2007, the back
cover featured "Our America," paintings of Rockwell-style whimsical situations
by artist C. F. Payne. The first "Word Power" column of the
magazine was published in the January 1945 edition. The author's name, Wilfred
J. Funk, was disclosed in the February 1945 issue. In December 1952 the
magazine published "Cancer by the Carton", a series of articles that
linked smoking with lung cancer. This first brought the dangers of smoking to
public attention which, up to then, had ignored the health threats.
From 2002 through 2006, Reader's Digest conducted a vocabulary competition in
schools throughout the United States called Reader's Digest National Word
Power Challenge. In 2007, the magazine said it had decided not to have the
competition for the 2007–08 school year, "but rather to use the time to evaluate
the program in every respect, including scope, mission, and model for
implementation." In 2006, the magazine published three
more local-language editions in Slovenia, Croatia and Romania. In
October 2007, the Digest expanded in Serbia. The magazine's licensee in Italy
stopped publishing in December 2007. The magazine launched in The People's
Republic of China in 2008. For 2010, the U.S. edition of the
magazine planned to decrease its circulation to 5.5 million, from 8
million, to publish 10 times a year rather than 12, and to increase digital
offerings. It also planned to reduce its number of celebrity profiles and how-to
features, and increase the number of inspiring spiritual stories and stories
about the military. It has been increased back to 12 times a year from
2013. The regular features include the cartoon series Reynolds Unwrapped by Dan
Reynolds. Business organization and ownership
The magazine's parent company, The Reader's Digest Association, Inc.,
became a publicly traded corporation in 1990. As of 2010 RDA has reported a net
loss each year since 2005. In March 2007, Ripplewood Holdings LLC led a
consortium of private equity investors who bought the company through a
leveraged buy-out for US$2.8 billion, financed primarily by the issuance of
US$2.2 billion of debt. Ripplewood invested $275 million of its own money,
and had partners including Rothschild Bank of Zurich and GoldenTree Asset
Management of New York. The private equity deal tripled the association's
interest payments, to $148 million a year.
On August 24, 2009 RDA announced it had filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy court a
pre-arranged Chapter 11 bankruptcy, in order to continue operations, and to
restructure the $2.2 billion debt undertaken by the leveraged buy-out
transaction. The company emerged from bankruptcy with the lenders exchanging
debt for equity, and Ripplewood's entire equity investment was extinguished.
In April 2010, the UK arm was sold to its management. It has a licensing deal
with the US company to continue publishing the UK edition.
In 2010, the US the company cut the number of issues it published a year
from 12 to 10. It also cut its circulation guarantee for advertisers to
5.5 million copies from 8 million. However it returned to monthly editions
beginning in January 2013. RDA Holding filed for bankruptcy for a
second time on February 17, 2013. = Sweepstakes agreement =
In 2001, 32 states attorneys general reached agreements with the company and
other sweepstakes operators to settle allegations that they tricked the
elderly into buying products because they were a "guaranteed winner" of a
lottery. The settlement required the companies to expand the type size of
notices in the packaging that no purchase is necessary to play the
sweepstakes, and to: Establish a "Do Not Contact List" and
refrain from soliciting any future "high-activity" customers unless and
until Reader's Digest actually makes contact with that customer and
determines that the customer is not buying because he or she thinks that the
purchase will improve his or her chances of winning.
Send letters to individuals who spend more than $1,000 in a six-month period
telling them that they are not required to make purchases to win the
sweepstakes, that making a purchase will not improve their chances of winning and
that all entries have the same chance to win whether or not the entry is
accompanied by a purchase. The agreement appeared to adversely
affect Reader's Digest circulation in the U.S. Its 1970s peak circulation was
17 million U.S. subscribers. Direct marketing
RDA offers many mail-order products included with "sweepstakes" or contests.
U.S. Reader's Digest and the company's other U.S. magazines do not use
sweepstakes in their direct mail promotions. A notable shift to
electronic direct marketing has been undertaken by the company to adapt to
shifting media landscape. Criticism
Reader's Digest in the UK has been criticised by the Trading Standards
Institute for preying on the elderly and vulnerable with misleading bulk mailings
that claim the recipient is guaranteed a large cash prize and advising them not
to discuss this with anyone else. Following their complaint, the
Advertising Standards Authority said they would be launching an
investigation. The ASA investigation upheld the complaint in 2008, ruling
that the Reader's Digest mailing was irresponsible, misleading and had
breached three clauses of the Committee of Advertising Practice code. Reader's
Digest was told not to use this mailing again.
International editions Although Reader's Digest was founded in
the U.S., its international editions have made it the best-selling monthly
magazine in the world. The magazine's worldwide circulation including all
editions has reached 17 million copies and 70 million readers.
Reader's Digest is currently published in 49 editions and 21 languages and is
available in over 70 countries, including Slovenia, Croatia, and Romania
in 2008. Its international editions account for
about 50% of the magazine's trade volume. In each market, local editors
commission or purchase articles for their own market and share content with
US and other editions. The selected articles are then translated by local
translators and the translations edited by the local editors to make them match
the "well-educated informal" style of the American edition.
Over the 90 years, the company has published editions in various languages
in different countries, or for different regions.
Usually these editions started out as translations of the US version of the
magazine, but over time many non-US editions became unique, providing local
material more germane to local readers. Local editions that still publish the
bulk of the American Reader's Digest are usually titled with a qualifier, such as
the Portuguese edition, Seleções do Reader's Digest, or the Swedish edition,
Reader's Digest Det Bästa. The list is sorted by year of first
publication. Some countries had editions but no longer do; for example, the
Danish version of Reader's Digest ceased publication in 2005 and was replaced by
the Swedish version; as a result, the Swedish edition covers stories about
both countries. On February 17, 2014, The Guardian had
this headline: "Reader's Digest sold for £1. Mike Luckwell buys struggling title
from Jon Moulton's private equity company, Better Capital, with plan to
target over-50s". = Arabic editions =
The first Reader's Digest publication in the Arab World was printed in Egypt in
September 1943. The license was eventually terminated.
The second effort and the first Reader's Digest franchise agreement was
negotiated through the efforts of Frederick Pittera, in 1976, an American
entrepreneur, who sold the idea to Lebanon's former Foreign Minister,
Lucien Dahdah, then son-in-law of Suleiman Frangieh, President of Lebanon.
Dahdah partnered with Ghassan Tueni in publishing Reader's Digest in the Arabic
language. It was printed in Cairo for distribution throughout the Arab world
under title Al- Mukhtar. In format, Al-Mukhtar was the same as the U.S.
edition with 75% of the editorial content. Philip Hitti, Chairman of
Princeton University's Department of Oriental Languages and a team of Arabic
advisers counseled on what would be of interest to Arabic readers. The
publication of Al-Mukhtar was terminated by Reader's Digest in April 1993.
= Canadian edition = The Canadian edition first appeared in
July 1947 in French and in February 1948 in English, and today the vast majority
of it is Canadian content. All major articles in the August 2005 edition and
most of the minor articles were selected from locally-produced articles that
matched the Digest style. There is usually at least one major American
article in most issues. "Life's Like That" is the Canadian name
of "Life in These United States." All other titles are taken from the American
publication. Recent "That's Outrageous" articles have been using editorials from
the Calgary Sun. Under new management—the new editor is
Robert Goyette—the Canadian edition continues to publish.
= Indian edition = The Indian edition was first published
in 1954. Its circulation then was 40,000 copies. It was published for many years
by the Tata Group of companies. Today, the magazine is published in India by
Living Media India Ltd, and sold over 600,000 copies monthly in 2008. It
prints Indian and international articles. According to the Indian
Readership Survey Round II of 2009, the readership for Reader's Digest is 3.94
million, second only to India Today at 5.62 million. The India edition Chief
Executive Officer is Ashish Bagga. The India Editor is Mohan Sivanand.
= Australian edition = Reader's Digest Australia today has an
any issue readership of 1.5 million and a circulation of over 200,000. The
magazine has a guaranteed audience with a 90% subscription rate. The
editor-in-chief is Sue Carney. = New Zealand edition =
With a readership of 299,000 per month Reader's Digest remains a firm favourite
magazine for kiwis. This magazine circulates approximately 50,000 copies
per month. Books
Reader's Digest publishes bi-monthly a series of softcover anthologies called
Reader's Digest Select Editions. During the 1970s, there was also a Reader's
Digest Press, which published full-length, original works of
non-fiction. Editors
Lila Bell Wallace and DeWitt Wallace Hobart D. Lewis
Edward T. Thompson Kenneth O. Gilmore
Kenneth Tomlinson Christopher Willcox
Eric Schrier Jacqueline Leo
Peggy Northrop Liz Vaccariello
See also World's Best Reading
List of United States magazines John Patric, noted writer for Reader's
Digest during the 1930s and 1940s Notes
References External links
Official website Reader's Digest Australia