# The May 2024 Reader's Digest will be its last issue in the U.K **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** magazines-newspapers\ **Created:** [May 30, 2024, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-may-2024-readers-digest-will-be-its-last-issue-in-the-u-k/1002257 "2024-05-30T05:29:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2024, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-may-2024-readers-digest-will-be-its-last-issue-in-the-u-k/1002257/1 "2024-05-30T05:29:36Z")
After 86 years, they’re closing up shop. I just now found that out. At first glance, it looked like they were shuttering for good, but they aren’t, at least not for the American edition. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2024, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-may-2024-readers-digest-will-be-its-last-issue-in-the-u-k/1002257/2 "2024-05-30T05:41:03Z")
I guess their audience is dying of old age. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2024, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-may-2024-readers-digest-will-be-its-last-issue-in-the-u-k/1002257/3 "2024-05-30T06:49:40Z")
The way that magazine’s been going in recent years, the more likely issue is the audience is dying of boredom. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2024, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-may-2024-readers-digest-will-be-its-last-issue-in-the-u-k/1002257/4 "2024-05-30T08:46:21Z")
I haven’t been in the waiting room of a doctor’s office since 2009, so that’s probably the last time I ever was likely to have seen a copy. I see that they’ve changed the cover style to be like larger glossy magazines. _Reader’s Digest_ as I remember it had covers like 1996 and before. (And filled with old jokes and glurgy anecdotes.) > **[60 Reader’s Digest Covers to Celebrate 100 Years](https://www.rd.com/list/vintage-readers-digest-covers/)** > > Celebrate the magazine's 100th anniversary with a stroll down memory lane. Which classic Reader's Digest cover is your favorite? ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2024, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-may-2024-readers-digest-will-be-its-last-issue-in-the-u-k/1002257/5 "2024-05-30T09:16:04Z")
I used to love _Reader’s Digest_ when I was younger. We had a subscription, and I looked forward to each edition, delivered monthly. Their “Condensed Books” were pretty sad (their version of _1984_ cut off before it got to the point), but the rest of the articles were interesting, and the anecdotes and jokes were fun. But I haven’t seen one in years. They were a staple on the supermarket racks, alongside the _National Enquirer_ and the _Weekly World News_, but they seem to be there no longer. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2024, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-may-2024-readers-digest-will-be-its-last-issue-in-the-u-k/1002257/6 "2024-05-30T12:56:56Z")
My paternal grandparents used to buy our family annual subscriptions to _Reader’s Digest,_ and boxes of grapefruit and oranges, every Christmas. It was a poignant moment of knowing they were gone when the magazines and fruit stopped coming. Is it my imagination, or did “Drama in Real Life” used to have horrifying stories of, like, rape in it sometimes? ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2024, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-may-2024-readers-digest-will-be-its-last-issue-in-the-u-k/1002257/7 "2024-05-30T14:33:13Z")
Joe’s gallbladder is going to be lonesome there. I remember when _Reader’s Digest_ was the biggest selling monthly and _TV Guide_ the biggest weekly. Things change. ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2024, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-may-2024-readers-digest-will-be-its-last-issue-in-the-u-k/1002257/8 "2024-05-30T17:48:20Z")
“It Pays To Increase Your Rude Word Power!” ---
**Author:** ![Dogginit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dogginit/32/16920_2.png) [@Dogginit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogginit)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2024, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-may-2024-readers-digest-will-be-its-last-issue-in-the-u-k/1002257/9 "2024-05-30T18:24:13Z")
> [@ekedolphin](#): > > Is it my imagination, or did “Drama in Real Life” used to have horrifying stories of, like, rape in it sometimes? “Drama in Real Life” had all kinds of horrifying stories, across the board. The one that’s stuck with me since about the age of 7 relayed the story of a guy who fell on a ski slope, slid quite a way down the slope, and didn’t stop til he caught a fir tree between his legs 😬 ETA: The main reason I never took up skiing 😆 ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2024, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-may-2024-readers-digest-will-be-its-last-issue-in-the-u-k/1002257/10 "2024-06-01T20:28:07Z")
Here in the UK, I’m slightly amazed that it still existed - I assumed it folded decades ago. In fact, I’m almost certain that I checked this out years ago. False memory? I remember them from Youth Hostels, on holiday, back when I was a kid. Bored, no TV… it was an easy read. j ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2024, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-may-2024-readers-digest-will-be-its-last-issue-in-the-u-k/1002257/11 "2024-06-02T16:34:53Z")
My biological father gave me a stack of these to read when I was a kid, and I thought they were the greatest ever. I still remember some lessons from It Pays to Enrich Your Word Power. I also remember some of the jokes. I remember a story about someone getting attacked by dogs. And about a guy who tried to rob a lady but she converted him to Christianity. I was too young to pick up on the political vibe. I don’t think I could read it now. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2024, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-may-2024-readers-digest-will-be-its-last-issue-in-the-u-k/1002257/12 "2024-06-02T22:00:13Z")
The political vibe has ebbed and flowed through the years. In the 1980s, it was VERY right-wing. When I was a kid, I found a box full of back issues, from the 1940s and 1950s, in my grandmother’s garage, and loved every minute of reading them, even when kids at school made fun of me for bringing them in on free-reading day. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2024, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-may-2024-readers-digest-will-be-its-last-issue-in-the-u-k/1002257/13 "2024-06-03T05:49:15Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > The political vibe has ebbed and flowed through the years. In the 1980s, it was VERY right-wing. When this thread first started I googled around for articles on The Digest. They ranged from comments that it was going hard right to comments that it was going Woke: > **[Reader’s Digest Searches for a Contemporary Niche (Published 2009)](https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/19/business/media/19readers.html)** > > The magazine has dropped generic how-to magazine features for inspiring spiritual articles and tales of military life. > **[When old friends like Reader’s Digest go off the rails](https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/nov/26/when-old-friends-like-readers-digest-go-off-rails/)** > > Reader’s Digest has something strangely out of place - a whiff of wokeism. I didn’t really remember noticing the political leanings when I read parts of the occasional issue long ago, just that it was a very elderly person type of thing, like Family Circus. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2024, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-may-2024-readers-digest-will-be-its-last-issue-in-the-u-k/1002257/14 "2024-06-03T06:09:13Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > I didn’t really remember noticing the political leanings when I read parts of the occasional issue long ago, just that it was a very elderly person type of thing, like Family Circus. I never noticed any political leanings in the issues I read in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, but I’m in Canada, and we had our own Canadian edition of Reader’s Digest. Politics of any sort rarely made it in that edition, unless it was a profile of a (usually dead) politician and his or her legacy. Maybe about ten years ago, I got a sample copy in my mailbox, with a “Look what’s you’re missing out on” appeal for a subscription. I always liked it, so I had a look, but it was nothing like I remembered. Not political, not “woke,” just a bunch or articles I had no interest in. No “Drama in Real Life,” no “First Person Stories,” nothing like what I remembered. So, I didn’t subscribe. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2024, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-may-2024-readers-digest-will-be-its-last-issue-in-the-u-k/1002257/15 "2024-06-03T06:10:27Z")
One summer in MBA grad school, my brother interned at a nonprofit where Reader’s Digest was going to profile the nonprofit’s owner and their good deeds in Reader’s Digest. Somehow my brother was assigned to write the initial draft. An RD representative told him that in order for the article to meet RD standards, it had to be very emotional (of course). The way the rep put it: “If you’re not embarrassed to have written it, it’s not sappy enough”. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2024, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-may-2024-readers-digest-will-be-its-last-issue-in-the-u-k/1002257/16 "2024-06-03T06:13:43Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > Not political, not “woke,” just a bunch or articles I had no interest in. No “Drama in Real Life,” no “First Person Stories,” nothing like what I remembered. No “I am Joe’s Liver”? My older sister still teases me about cutting out “I am Joe’s Lung” and leaving it for her in her bedroom when she started smoking as a teen. It worked, but it took 50 years… ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2024, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-may-2024-readers-digest-will-be-its-last-issue-in-the-u-k/1002257/17 "2024-06-03T16:16:07Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > When this thread first started I googled around for articles on The Digest. They ranged from comments that it was going hard right to comments that it was going Woke: In the late 80s, I remember a lot of military stories, a lot of Christian stories, and a feature called “That’s Outrageous!” which was basically complaints about liberals. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2024, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-may-2024-readers-digest-will-be-its-last-issue-in-the-u-k/1002257/18 "2024-06-03T18:14:42Z")
It was in _Reader’s Digest_ that I first saw the name Dennis Rodman. He was in one of those unbearably heartwarming tales that the magazine is known for. He was working at a youth basketball camp when he befriended a kid who accidentally shot his best friend in a hunting accident. The story ends right as Rodman is drafted by the Detroit Pistons. The contrast between this sappy, cloyingly sweet tale and the first-class weirdo he became is always amusing to me. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2024, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-may-2024-readers-digest-will-be-its-last-issue-in-the-u-k/1002257/19 "2024-06-03T20:21:10Z")
They had a traditional mainstream conservative style that wasn’t highly political, but certainly right of center when it was political. Military, religion, US exceptionalism, were very common themes, but that was found throughout US publications in general. I think by the 80s they steered toward the right-wing politically. The magazine was created by a somewhat conservative family, but the magazine wasn’t noticeably so until perhaps the 80s. Market research may have revealed that their readership had become more politically conservative. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2024, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-may-2024-readers-digest-will-be-its-last-issue-in-the-u-k/1002257/20 "2024-06-04T01:32:46Z")
I recall that they didn’t have a lot of kind words for the Americans with Disabilities Act (spelled out so no one could think I accidentally typed the wrong letter for the ACA. Although I imagine that they didn’t like that either). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-may-2024-readers-digest-will-be-its-last-issue-in-the-u-k/1002257.md?page=2)