There’s probably no agreeing on precisely when Reader’s Digest took a turn for the worse. There was the move last year to stick a celebrity photograph on the cover of every issue, rather than the picture of an ordinary American whose story of heroism would inspire readers. Two years earlier, there was the magazine’s redesign, which elevated graphics and visuals to a place of importance that previously had been reserved for the power of the written word. Around the same time, the magazine dropped its familiar slogan promising “Thirty-one articles each month . . . Each article of enduring value and interest.” There aren’t 31 articles each month anymore—the February 2002 issue has only 15—and most of those that remain sure aren’t of enduring value and interest, either.
It’s a saddening transformation, and one that must especially upset conservatives, who seem able to do little more than sit by the bed of a good friend in the throes of a terminal illness. Reader’s Digest was not only the greatest and most popular magazine of the 20th century, it was also a steady ally. Monthly celebrations of traditional American values, staunch anti-Communism during the Cold War, and an optimistic philosophy of moral and personal aspiration made it stand out in the lowest-common-denominator world of magazine publishing. In an unwitting tribute to the Digest’s success and influence, the Left loathed it. Conservatives of all stripes—and perhaps most importantly, the unpoliticized, small-c conservatives of the heartland—cherished it. The Digest was the quintessential magazine of “red-state” America—those broad swaths of the country-colored red for George W. Bush on 2000 Election Night maps, as opposed to blue for Al Gore.
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