Short answers, pulled from the story.
Jann Wenner launched Rolling Stone in San Francisco with the first issue hitting newsstands on the 9th of November 1967. He borrowed seven thousand five hundred dollars from his family and Jane Schindelheim to start the publication.
Rolling Stone retracted a story about an alleged gang rape at University of Virginia on the 5th of April 2015 after an investigation found major errors. The magazine faced lawsuits resulting in three million dollars awarded to Nicole Eramo in November 2016 and a settlement of one point six five million dollars for the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity.
The magazine began as tabloid-sized pulp newsprint sold for twenty-five cents before switching to four-color press editions in 1973. It became gloss-paper large-format measuring ten by twelve inches in 1980 and returned to that size starting July 2018 after using standard eight by eleven inch sizes since October 2008.
Penske Media Corporation acquired the remaining fifty-one percent stake in December 2017 and bought BandLab Technologies' share on the 31st of January 2019 to gain full ownership. This acquisition made the publication a monthly magazine from the July 2018 issue onward.
As of 2025 fifteen international editions operate worldwide including Australia launched in 1969 and Philippines launched in print in 2025. Other active editions include Argentina France Germany India Japan Korea Middle East North Africa and UK while versions in Bulgaria Canada Chile China Russia South Africa Turkey and Serbia-Croatia have been defunct.