Discover Magazine

''Discover'' is an American general audience science magazine launched in October 1980 by Time Inc. It has been owned by Kalmbach Publishing since 2010.

History

Founding

''Discover'' was created primarily through the efforts of ''Time'' magazine editor Leon Jaroff. He noticed that magazine sales jumped every time the cover featured a science topic. Jaroff interpreted this as a considerable public interest in science, and in 1971, he began agitating for the creation of a science-oriented magazine. This was difficult, as a former colleague noted, because "Selling science to people who graduated to be managers was very difficult".Hevesi, Dennis
"Leon Jaroff, Editor at Time and Discover Magazines, Dies at 85"
''The New York Times'', 21 October 2012

Jaroff's persistence finally paid off, and ''Discover'' magazine published its first edition in 1980. ''Discover'' was originally launched into a burgeoning market for science magazines aimed at educated non-professionals, intended to be easier to read than ''Scientific American'' but more detailed and science-oriented than ''Popular Science''.Garfield, Eugene
"Introducing Discover"
''Essays of an Information Scientist'', Vol:5, 16 March 1981, pp. 52-56 Shortly after its launch, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) launched a similar magazine called '' Science 80'' (not to be confused with its flagship academic journal, ''Science''), and both ''Science News'' and '' Science Digest'' changed their formats to follow the new trend.

During this period, ''Discover'' featured fairly in-depth science reporting on "hard science" and avoided fringe topics like extraterrestrial intelligence. Most issues contained essays by well-known scientists—such as Stephen Jay Gould, Jared Diamond, and Stephen Hawking. Another common article was a biography, often linked with mentions of other scientists working in the field. The "Skeptical Eye" column sought to uncover pop-science scams, and was the medium where James Randi released the results of Project Alpha. Jaroff said that it was the most-read section at its launch.

Competition and change

The sudden appearance of so many magazines in the same market space inevitably led to some falling by the wayside, and ''Discover'' was left largely alone in its market space by the mid-1980s; it nevertheless decided to appeal to a wider audience by including articles on psychology and psychiatry. Jaroff told the editor-in-chief that these were not "solid sciences", and was sent back to ''Discovers parent, Time, Inc. "Skeptical Eye" and other columns disappeared, and articles covered more controversial, speculative topics (like "How the Universe Will End"). The new format was a great success, and the new format remained largely unchanged for the next two decades.

Gilbert Rogin, a ''Sports Illustrated'' editor, was brought in 1985 to revive ''Discover''. In 1986, Time purchased the subscription lists of the shuttered magazines '' Science Digest'' and '' Science 86'' from their publishers. Circulation for the magazine reached 925,000 by May 1987 with revenue for 1986 being $6.9 million, but annual net loss was $10 million.

In January 1987, Time appointed a new ''Discover'' publisher, Bruce A. Barnet, previously publisher of ''Picture Week'' test magazine from August 1985 to replace James B. Hayes, who was appointed publisher of ''Fortune''.

The magazine changed hands several times. In 1987, Time, Inc. sold ''Discover'' to Family Media, the owners of ''Health'', ''Golf Illustrated'', ''Homeowner'', ''1,001 Home Ideas'' and ''World Tennis'', for $26 million. From January to July 1991, Discover magazine lost 15% of its advertising while still remaining profitable. Family Media closed down while suspending publication of all its magazines and placing them up for sale. Family Media's last ''Discover'' issue was August 1991, with a circulation of 1.1 million copies.

In September 1991, The Walt Disney Company bought the magazine for its Disney Publishing's Magazine Group. The magazine's main office was moved to the Magazine Group office in Burbank while leaving one third behind in New York in a small editorial and advertising office. Disney was able to retain Family Media's editor-in-chief for the magazine, Paul Hoffman. Disney doubled the magazine's photography and its content budget to overcome skipping two issues in Family Media's shutdown and ownership change. In 1993, Disney Magazine Publishing Inc. decided to launch a trade advertising campaign designed with advertising firm Ziff Marketing to raise awareness in the advertising field that the magazine is an accessible general interest magazine in the science category.

In October 2005, Bob Guccione, Jr., founder of ''Spin'' and ''Gear'' magazines, and some private equity partners purchased the magazine from Disney. Guccione served as CEO and oversaw a redesign for the April 2006 issue. However, Guccione was ousted as CEO in October 2007 in what was described as "a falling-out over philosophical differences with his financial backers"."Guccione Jr. Goes From Penthouse to the Outhouse"
''New York Post'', 10 October 2007. Henry Donahue, Discover Media's chief financial officer, became the new CEO. In 2008, he also assumed the role of publisher. In October 2008, Corey Powell, ''Discovers executive editor, became editor-in-chief. As of April 2009, the magazine published combined issues in January/February and July/August, for a total of ten issues a year.

In 2010 the magazine was sold to Kalmbach Publishing, whose books and magazines are generally about craft and hobby subjects such as modeling ('' Model Railroader'', ''FineScale Modeler'', ''Scale Auto'', ''Classic Toy Trains'', ''Garden Railways'', ''Model Retailer''), beadwork (''BeadStyle'', ''Bead&Button'', ''Art Jewelry''), and the outdoors (''Birder’s World'', '' Cabin Life'', ''American Snowmobiler''). It has one other science magazine, ''Astronomy''. In August 2012 Kalmbach announced that ''Discover'' would be moving from New York City to Kalmbach's headquarters in Wisconsin in January 2013. In December 2012, Stephen C. George became the editor-in-chief. Becky Lang was the editor-in-chief until mid-2020.

Blog portal

The ''Discover'' website includes a collection of blogs related to science, including Cosmic Variance, Carl Zimmer's The Loom, and Melissa Lafsky's Reality Base.

TV series

From 1983–1990, PBS aired '' Discover: The World of Science'', a monthly hour-long news magazine featuring topics from the publication and hosted by Peter Graves.

See also

* Stephen Petranek - former editor

References

External links

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Discover (magazine)
Monthly magazines published in the United States
Magazines established in 1980
Science and technology magazines published in the United States
Magazines published in Wisconsin
Disney Publishing Worldwide