Reader's Digest

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Reader's Digest is a monthly general interest family magazine cofounded in 1922 by Lila Bell Wallace and DeWitt Wallace. Although its circulation has declined in recent years, the Audit Bureau of Circulation says Reader's Digest is still the best-selling consumer magazine in the USA, with a circulation of over 10 million copies in the United States, and a readership of 38 million as measured by Mediamark Research (MRI). According to MRI, Reader's Digest 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 50 editions in 21 languages. It is also published in braille, digital, audio, and a version in large type called Reader's Digest Large Print.

Reader's Digest is owned and published by The Reader's Digest Association, a privately held company based in Chappaqua, New York (the mailing address is actually Pleasantville, New York).

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."

The first "It Pays to Increase Your Word Power" was published in the January 1945 edition.[1] The author's name, Wilfred Funk, was disclosed in the February 1945 issue.[2]

Contents

[edit] 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 21 million copies and over 100 million readers.

The first international edition was published in the United Kingdom in 1938 and was sold at 2 shillings. Reader's Digest is currently published in 50 editions and 21 languages and is available in over 61 countries. In 2006, the Reader's Digest continued to expand, marketing three more new editions in Slovenia, Croatia and Romania. As from October 2007, Reader's Digest expanded in Serbia.

Its 49 international editions, which account for about 50% of its trade volume, are controlled from the American headquarters. Except for 2 or 3 articles in each local issue, they are entirely composed of articles taken from the US and other editions, creating a mix of articles from many regions of the world. The local editorial staff comprise an office of people who select from the US and other editions and commission local content pieces, subject -- in rare cases -- to the approval of the American headquarters. 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.

The first Readers Digest publication in the Arab World was printed in Egypt during Gamal Nasser's (1950s) regime. The license was eventually terminated. The second effort and the first Readers 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, Dr.Lucien Dahdah, then son-in-law of Suleiman Franjeh President of Lebanon. Dr.Dahdah partnered with Ghassan Al Tueni,( former Lebanon Ambassador to the United Nations,and publisher of Al Nahar newspaper, Beirut), in publishing the Readers 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 only 75% of the editorial content. Dr.Philip Hitti,Chairman of Princeton University's department of oriental languages and a team of Arabic advisors counseled on what would be of interest to Arabic readers. The publication of Al-Mukhtar was terminated by Readers Digest in the late 1980s.

[edit] Canadian edition

The Canadian edition first appeared in February 1948, 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.

[edit] Localization procedures

Efforts are made to give the international editions a local look to make sure the Digest is never seen to be a threat to the local cultural identity, as imported American cultural products often are. Previously, all editions featured the table of contents on the front cover, but this practice ceased a few years ago. While the American edition also lists the authors of the articles or the (American) publications they have been taken from, the international editions list only titles, although some editions followed the US format in the past. Advertisement placement in the local editions are entirely managed by the local staff and reflect local products.

Many American articles are integrated within the local context. For instance, in an article on air travel, John F. Kennedy Airport will be replaced by a local airport and references to American airlines with information on local companies. Local statistics may be added, currencies and measures will be adapted. Local names, quotes or pictures of local sights will sometimes replace the original ones. All those operations are called "adaptation" by the Digest editors: they are performed by the local editors and writers according to general central rules but without specific US control.

Another, similar intervention is to complement the numerous sections featuring short anecdotes (such as Quotable Quotes, Points to Ponder, Humor in Uniform, etc) with local anecdotes.

Local editions also avoid reprinting articles which may touch on sensitive spots in the receiving culture; for instance, the Italian edition may decide not to select articles which are critical of Catholicism. In general, the local editions will also avoid selecting texts which are too closely linked to very specific American (or too foreign) situations. The few articles written by local authors always deal with local topics.

[edit] Books

Reader's Digest also publishes a series of softcover anthology books, published bi-monthly and available by subscription named Reader's Digest Select Editions (previously known as Reader's Digest Condensed Books) such as 700 Years of Classical Treasures: A Tapestry in Music and Words. During the 1970s, there was also a Reader's Digest Press which published full-length, original works of non-fiction.

[edit] History

In 1952 the magazine published a series of articles that linked smoking with lung cancer.[3] This was the first serious examination of the health effects of smoking. The most immediate effect was to prompt the tobacco industry to market filter cigarettes.

[edit] Direct marketing

Reader's Digest offers many mail order products included with "sweepstakes" or contests implying that one would have a greater chance of winning if they bought from the company. In 2001 32 states reached an agreement with the company to settle allegations that the company tricked the elderly into buying products because they were a "guaranteed winner" of a lottery. The settlement requires the company to:

  1. 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.
  2. 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, in fact, all entries have the same chance to win whether or not the entry is accompanied by a purchase.[4][5][6]

[edit] Competitions

Reader's Digest Word Power section sponsors a US National Vocabulary Contest.

[edit] 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
  • Clem Robyns, "The Internationalisation of Social and Cultural Values: On the Homogenization and Localization Strategies of the Reader's Digest", in Jana Králová & Zuzana Jettmarová, Translation Strategies and Effects in Cross-Cultural Value Transfers and Shifts, Prague: Folia Translatologica, 83-92, 1994
  • Samuel A. Schreiner, The Condensed World of the Reader's Digest, New York: Stein and Day, 1977.
  • James Playsted Wood, 1958: Of Lasting Interest: The Story of the Reader's Digest, Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1958.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ pages 29 and 103
  2. ^ Don R. Vaughan, Ph.D., vocabulary columnist
  3. ^ CNN Interactive
  4. ^ Readers Digest Enters Into Multi-state Sweepstakes Agreement Agrees to Pay $6 Million in Consumer Restitution
  5. ^ News & Alerts - California Dept. of Justice - Office of the Attorney General
  6. ^ Reader's Digest Agrees to Sweeps Restrictions

[edit] External links