From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Reader's Digest is a general interest family magazine published by the Reader's Digest Association. It's currently the best-selling monthly magazine in the world.
Published monthly, Reader's Digest includes original articles, condensed articles reprinted from other magazines, book excerpts, and collections of jokes, anecdotes, quotations and other short pieces. The magazine's mission is to include one article for each day of the month, each of "enduring value and interest."
Articles in Reader's Digest cover a range of topics, including politics and government, health, international affairs, business, education and humor. They tend to be short, which allows busy readers to keep up with a variety of topics without investing too much time.
Regular features include "Word Power," a vocabulary-building quiz; "Life in These United States," a collection of reader-submitted anecdotes, both humorous and profound; and "Laughter, the Best Medicine," a collection of jokes submitted by readers.
DeWitt and Lila Wallace published the first issue on February 5 (some sources say February 7), 1922. It was available by mail for 25¢ a copy. The magazine became available on newsstands in 1929. Circulation passed the 1,000,000-copy mark in 1935. Currently, the magazine's worldwide circulation has reached 21 million copies and over 100 million readers.
The United States edition of Reader's Digest currently prints 12.5 million copies and reaches 44 million readers. The U.S. edition is also published in a large-type edition called Reader's Digest Large Type, and in a Spanish-language edition called Selecciones.
The 10 billionth copy of the U.S. edition was published in 1994.
Although Reader's Digest was founded in the U.S., it has become the best-selling monthly magazine in the world. The first international edition was published in the United Kingdom in 1938. It's currently published in 48 international editions and 19 languages, and is available in over 60 countries.
