Everyday something is published all over the world. Earlier in the print format, now also in the digital format. We have a Tsunami of new words every single day. Reading all that is an impossible task for a single human being in one human life. Could there be a mechanism where someone read some of these things – selected the best for you, wrote a concise summary and gave it to you to make you aware of the power of words and ideas all around and also gave you an opportunity to stay updated...month after month....year after year.....now 102 years this month! That’s exactly the greatest concept regarding the propagation of information - in form of a family magazine called Reader’s Digest. Reader’s Digest is 102 years old today – 05 February.
The brains behind this wonderful concept – a recovering soldier from World War 1 named Mr. DeWitt Wallace who was a voracious reader and came up with idea of a magazine of sumarised articles or a collection of condensed and rewritten stories and articles on various topics. He was greatly supported in this endeavour by his wife Mrs. Lila Bell Wallace.
Mr. DeWitt Wallace and Mrs. Lila Bell Wallace featured on the Time Magazine.
The research was started at the Public Library in Minneapolis - Minnesota (USA) and the first edition was created from the reading room of the New York Public Library. Reader’s Digest has run for a century since the launch of its first issue in February 1922.
The very first issue of the Reader's Digest - February 1922. The subscription was based on Direct Mail Method.
Reader’s Digest – published initially from USA, today has a circulation of more than 10.5 Million copies across 49 publications in more than 70 countries and 21 languages, making it the largest paid circulation magazine in the world. The Indian edition started in January 1954.
I was introduced to this wonderful magazine through my grandfather who had a great collection and every trip to his home would be filled with reading interesting articles based on various topics. Later my parents subscribed to Reader’s Digest and for several years we had a Digest in our mailbox every month. Drama in real life, Laughter is the best medicine and Life is like that - were my favourite parts of the Digest each month.
I was so impressed by this idea of the Digest that at one stage in my life – while I was soul searching to find the meaning to my life – I had seriously thought of creating something on similar lines as a business venture. But destiny had some other plans and that did not happen.
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