A Century Of Change

In celebration of our centenary, we’ll be looking at how the world has changed over the last 100 years throughout all of 2022, starting with our very own magazine…

After regularly reading magazines while recovering from a shrapnel injury from serving in the First World War, a novel idea came to a young William Dewitt Wallace.

He desired to make a magazine that published 31 articles from leading publications (one for each day of the month), all condensed for clarity, and selected especially for their overall interest.

He would consider three vital questions when looking for articles to include in the magazine: Is it quotable? Is it applicable? Is it of lasting interest? And from this golden trinity of considerations, Reader’s Digest was born.

Together with his wife Lila Bell, Digest was co-founded in 1921, with the first ever issue publishing in February 1922. They promoted it through direct mail, and it quickly proved a hit with American readers.

Many thousands of people would subscribe within a few years. Now, it’s published in 23 countries, and in 12 languages (including Slovenian and Cantonese). Of course, in 1922 there was no equivalent Digest on British shores, and it took until March 1938 for the UK edition to hit shelves. Subsequently, over 1,000 issues have been published, with the copy you’re holding in your very hands being the latest in a since unbroken line of publishing. In recent times, Reader’s Digest has become widely read online, and is available to read as an e-mag. Social media has also expanded the Digest’s reach and ensured that people can stay in touch with the magazine with greater ease.

One of the motivating forces behind Digest was to inject brightness and hope to the world through invigorating and uplifting articles. And that’s something that hasn’t changed, with recent features in our pages including an interview with Dr Edith Eger, a psychologist who survived the Holocaust, while another moving piece interviewed the heroes, activists, and survivors of the Grenfell tragedy. Thank you for your readership.

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