Reader's Digest
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Reader's Digest is an American general-interest family magazine, published ten times a year. Formerly based in
Chappaqua, New York, it is now headquartered in
Midtown Manhattan. The magazine was founded in 1920, by
DeWitt Wallace and
Lila Bell Wallace. For many years,
Reader's Digest was the
best-selling consumer magazine in the United States; it lost the distinction in 2009 to
Better Homes and Gardens. According to Mediamark Research (2006),
Reader's Digest reaches more readers with household incomes of $100,000+ than
Fortune,
The Wall Street Journal,
Business Week, and
Inc. combined.
[2]
Global editions of
Reader's Digest reach an additional 40
million people in more than 70 countries, via 49 editions in 21
languages. The periodical 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 in a 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
First issue of the Reader's Digest, February 1922
Inception and growth
In 1922
(96 years ago),
DeWitt Wallace started the magazine while he was recovering from shrapnel wounds received in
World War I.
[3]
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.
[4]
Since its inception,
Reader's Digest has maintained a
conservative[5] and
anti-Communist perspective on political and social issues.
[6]
The Wallaces initially hoped the journal could provide $5,000 of net
income. Mr. Wallace’s 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. 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.
[4]
The magazine's format for several decades consisted of 30 articles
per issue (one per day), along with a vocabulary page, a page of
"Amusing 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.
[7]
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.
[citation needed]
The first "Word Power" column of the magazine was published in the January 1945 edition, written by
Wilfred J. Funk.
[8][9] In December 1952 the magazine published "Cancer by the Carton", a series of articles that linked
smoking with
lung cancer.
[10] This first brought the dangers of smoking to the attention of a public which, up to then, had ignored the health threats.
[citation needed]
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 (
NWPC).
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."
[11]
In 2006, the magazine published three more local-language editions in
Slovenia,
Croatia, and
Romania. In October 2007, the
Digest expanded into
Serbia. The magazine's licensee in
Italy stopped publishing in December 2007. The magazine launched in
The People's Republic of China in 2008.
[citation needed]
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 cut its
circulation guarantee for advertisers to 5.5 million copies from 8
million. In announcing that decision, in June 2009, the company said
that it 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.
[12]
Beginning in January 2013, the US edition was increased back to 12 times a year.
[13]
Former Reader's Digest building in Pleasantville, New York
Business organization and ownership
In 1990, the magazine's parent company,
The Reader's Digest Association, Inc. (RDA), became a publicly traded corporation. From 2005 through 2010, RDA reported a net loss each year.
[14]
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.
[4][4][12]
Ripplewood invested $275 million of its own money, and had partners
including Rothschild Bank of Zürich and GoldenTree Asset Management of
New York. The private equity deal tripled the association's interest
payments, to $148 million a year.
[4]
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 US$2.2 billion debt undertaken by the leveraged buy-out transaction.
[4][15][16]
The company emerged from bankruptcy with the lenders exchanging debt
for equity, and Ripplewood's entire equity investment was extinguished.
[4]
In April 2010, the UK arm was
sold to its management. It has a licensing deal with the U.S. company to continue publishing the UK edition.
[17]
On February 17, 2013, RDA Holding filed for bankruptcy a second time.
[18][19] The company was then purchased for £1 by Mike Luckwell, a venture capitalist and once the biggest shareholder in
WPP plc.
[20]
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.
[21]
Criticism
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.[22][23][24] The agreement appeared to adversely affect Reader's Digest circulation in the U.S.[clarification needed] Its 1970s peak circulation was 17 million U.S. subscribers.[4]
The UK edition of
Reader's Digest has also 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.
[25] The ASA investigation upheld the complaint in 2008, ruling that the
Reader's Digest mailing was irresponsible, misleading (particularly for the elderly) and had breached three clauses of the
Committee of Advertising Practice code.
[26] Reader's Digest was told not to use this mailing again.
References in popular culture
In his 1964 song "Motorpsycho Nightmare" (also known as "
Motorpsycho Nitemare")
Bob Dylan has an antagonistic farmer throw a
Reader's Digest at the song's
persona.
[27] [28]
International editions
International editions have made
Reader's Digest
the best-selling monthly journal in the world. Its 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 U.S. 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. Often, these
editions started out as translations of the U.S. version of the
magazine, but over time they became unique editions, providing 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 for instance the Portuguese edition,
Seleções do Reader's Digest (
Selections from Reader's Digest), or the Swedish edition,
Reader's Digest Det Bästa (
The Best of Reader's Digest).
The list is sorted by year of first publication.
[29] Some countries had editions but no longer do; for example, the Danish version of
Reader's Digest (
Det Bedste) ceased publication in 2005 and was replaced by the Swedish version (
Reader's Digest Det Bästa); as a result, the Swedish edition covers stories about both countries (but written solely in Swedish).
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".
[30]
- 1938 – United Kingdom (sold in 2010, operated under licence)
- 1940 – Cuba and Latin America (in Spanish) (as Selecciones)
- 1942 – Brazil
- 1943 – Sweden, Egypt (Arabic) (Al-Mukhtar)
- 1945 – Finland[31]
- 1946 – Australia, Denmark, Japan
- 1947 – Belgium (in French), France, Norway, Canadian French
- 1948 – Canada (English), Japan (operations discontinued in 1985), Germany, South Africa, Switzerland (in French and German), Italy (operations discontinued in 2007)
- 1950 – Argentina, New Zealand
- 1952 – Austria, Spain (as Selecciones in Spain)
- 1954 – India and Pakistan (in English)
- 1957 – Netherlands
- 1959 – Chile, Costa Rica and Central America
- 1965 – Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia (in Traditional Chinese)
- 1968 – Belgium (Dutch)
- 1971 – Puerto Rico and United States (in Spanish), Portugal (starting out as selections)
- 1978 – South Korea
- 1991 – Hungary, Russia
- 1993 – Czech Republic
- 1995 – Poland
- 1996 – Thailand (operations discontinued in 2014)
- 1997 – Slovakia
- 2004 – Indonesia (operations discontinued in October 2015)
- 2005 – Romania, Slovenia, Croatia, Bulgaria
- 2007 – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Ukraine
- 2008 – PR China (operations discontinued in 2012)
Arabic editions
The first
Reader's Digest publication in the
Arab World was printed in
Egypt in September 1943.
[32] 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 (former Lebanon
Ambassador to the United Nations, and publisher of
Al Nahar newspaper,
Beirut) 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 Dominique Ritter—publication of the Canadian edition continues.
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,
[33] and sold over 600,000 copies monthly in 2008. It prints Indian and international articles.
[33] 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.
[33] The India edition Chief Executive Officer is Ashish Bagga. The India Editor is
Sanghamitra Chakraborty.
[34]
Australian edition
Reader's Digest Australia today
[when?]
has an any issue readership of 1.5 million (according to Nielsen) and a
circulation of over 200,000. The magazine has a guaranteed audience
with a 90% subscription rate. The editorial director is Lynn Lewis.
New Zealand edition
With a readership of 299,000 per month
Reader's Digest remains a firm favourite magazine for New Zealanders. 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 (previously known as
Reader's Digest Condensed Books). During the 1970s, there was also a
Reader's Digest Press, which published full-length, original works of non-fiction.
Editors-in-chief
- Lila Bell Wallace and DeWitt Wallace (1922–1964)
- Hobart D. Lewis (1964–1976)
- Edward T. Thompson (1976–1984)
- Kenneth O. Gilmore (1984–1990)
- Kenneth Tomlinson (1990–1996)
- Christopher Willcox (1996–2000)
- Eric Schrier (2000–2001)
- Jacqueline Leo (2001–2007)
- Peggy Northrop (2007–2011)
- Liz Vaccariello (2011–2016)
- Bruce Kelley (2016–present)
See also
References
"Consumer Magazines". Alliance for Audited Media. Retrieved October 6, 2016.
Bibliography
- John Bainbridge, Little Wonder. Or, the Reader's Digest and How It Grew, New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1945.
- John Heidenry, Theirs Was the Kingdom: Lila and DeWitt Wallace and the Story of the Reader's Digest, New York/London: W.W. Norton, 1993
- Samuel A. Schreiner, The Condensed World of the Reader's Digest, New York: Stein and Day, 1977.
- James Playsted Wood, Of Lasting Interest: The Story of the Reader's Digest, Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1958.
- Clem Robyns, "The
Internationalisation of Social and Cultural Values: On the
Homogenization and Localization Strategies of the Reader's Digest", Folia Translatologica 3, 1994, 83–92
- Joanne P. Sharp, Condensing the Cold War: Reader's Digest and American Identity, University of Minnesota Press, 2000.
- Joanne P. Sharp, Hegemony, popular culture and geopolitics: the Reader's Digest and the construction of danger, Political Geography, Elsevier, 1996.
- Visnja Milidragovic, "From direct marketing tool to digital niche product: a Reader’s Digest Sweepstakes case study", SFU, 2012.
External links
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Major English-language current affairs and culture magazines
|
|---|
Languages
Doran, James (November 17, 2006). "Reader's Digest Sold to Private Equity Firm for $2.4bn". The Times. London. Retrieved October 24, 2008.
Daniel Niemeyer (2013). 1950s American Style: A Reference Guide. Lulu.com. p. 248. ISBN 978-1-304-20165-2. Retrieved 2016-09-27.
David Segal (December 20, 2009). "A Reader's Digest That Grandma Never Dreamed Of". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-12-20.
McGuire, Patrick A. (August 25, 1993). "Doing the Right Thing Reader's Digest's Lasting Appeal: Condensed and Conservative". The Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on 2012-01-11. Retrieved 2011-01-09. Still,
says Mr. Heidenry, the Digest has a blind side. 'It persists in a right
wing ideology,' he says, 'and they don't print two sides to a
question.'
Sharp, Joanne P. (2000). Condensing the Cold War: Reader’s Digest and American Identity. University of Minnesota Press.
"Reader's Digest | American magazine". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2017-06-01.
"Word Power". Reader's Digest: 29, 103. January 1945.
Don R. Vaughan, Ph.D., vocabulary columnist.[full citation needed]
"Tobacco History". CNN. Retrieved June 22, 2009.
"Reader's Digest National Word Power Challenge Program Announcement". Reader's Digest. Retrieved 2009-06-19.
Clifford, Stephanie (June 18, 2009). "Reader's Digest Searches for a Contemporary Niche". The New York Times.
Liz Vaccariello (December 2012). "Editor's Note". Reader's Digest.
"Filings for Readers Digest Association, Inc". EDGAR System. Securities and Exchange Commission. Retrieved 2013-02-21.
Reader's Digest Association – News & Releases
"Reader's Digest Plans Chapter 11 Filing". The New York Times. August 17, 2009. Retrieved 2010-05-22.
Kevin Reed (April 12, 2010). "Moore Stephens Sells Reader's Digest to Jon Moulton Business". Accountancy Age.
Michael J. De La Merced (February 18, 2013). "Reader's Digest Files for Bankruptcy, Again". The New York Times.
CNN, By Joanne Sharp, Special to. "Rise and fall of Reader's Digest - CNN.com". CNN. Retrieved 2017-06-01.
"Yours for a pound: The firms sold on the cheap". BBC News. 25 May 2018. Retrieved 25 May 2018.
Milidragovic, Visnja (April 13, 2012). "From direct marketing tool to digital niche product: a Reader’s Digest Sweepstakes case study" SFU.
Morris, Genene (March 8, 2001). "Reader's Digest Enters Into Multi-State Sweepstakes Agreement Agrees to Pay $6 Million in Consumer Restitution" (Press release). New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety Division of Consumer Affairs. Archived from the original on August 21, 2009. Retrieved June 22, 2009.
Attorney General's Press Office (March 8, 2001). "Attorney General Lockyer Announces Settlement With the Reader's Digest Association to Provide Improved Sweepstakes Disclosures" (Press release). State of California Department of Justice Office of the Attorney General. Retrieved June 22, 2009.
Schultz, Ray (March 8, 2001). "Reader's Digest Agrees to Sweeps Restrictions". Direct Mag. Retrieved June 22, 2009.
"Reader's Digest Mailshot Probed". BBC News. June 7, 2008. Retrieved September 14, 2010.
"ASA Adjudication on The Readers Digest Association Ltd". Advertising Standards Authority. June 7, 2008. Archived from the original on December 24, 2012. Retrieved September 14, 2010.
Bob Dylan, Lyrics 1962-2001, New York, Simon & Schuster, 2004, page 124
Another Side of Bob Dylan
"Reader's Digest Timeline". Phx.corporate-ir.net. March 3, 2007. Archived from the original on October 21, 2007. Retrieved June 22, 2009.
Sweney, Mark (February 17, 2014). "Reader's Digest Sold for £1". The Guardian. London.
"SanomaWSOY Corporation". Reference for Business. Retrieved April 23, 2015.
"مجلة " المختار " تعاود الصدور من الرياض - منتدى نغم". Archived from the original on June 26, 2010.
Indian version of Reader's Digest.
