1920's Media | The Reader's Digest

Small Wonder.

The digest magazine was introduced in the 1920s; the term digest applied to both the format (5" X 7½) and the editorial policy. The first and only enduring digest magazine—which gave its name to the category—was The Readers Digest, founded by newlyweds DeWitt and Lila Wallace in 1922. DeWitt Wallace condensed articles published in other magazines to provide a monthly selection of "enduring value" cut for people who did not have time to read many magazines or long articles; there was no fiction. Because there were no ads, the price of twenty-five cents (three dollars per year) was high at a time when most magazines cost ten cents or fifteen cents. The no-ad policy held until 1955. The first issue, dated February 1922, went to 1,500 subscribers. By 1929 there were 216,000 subscribers, and The Reader's Digest, which ultimately reached a world circulation of more than 30 million, was on...