Discover (magazine)

• 1. The Science Sales Pitch

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  Leon Jaroff watched magazine sales climb whenever a science topic appeared on the cover of Time. He saw this pattern in 1971 and began pushing for a dedicated science publication within his company. A former colleague later recalled that selling science to managers was very difficult at the time. Jaroff persisted through years of internal resistance before finally launching Discover in October 1980. The new magazine targeted educated non-professionals who wanted content easier than Scientific American but more detailed than Popular Science. It entered a market where competitors like Science News and Science Digest were already shifting their formats to follow the trend.

• 2. Hard Science To Psychology Shift

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  By the mid-1980s, Discover stood largely alone in its specific market space after many similar magazines had failed. Editor-in-chief Leon Jaroff decided to appeal to a wider audience by adding articles on psychology and psychiatry. He told his editor that these topics were not solid sciences yet the change proceeded anyway. The Skeptical Eye column disappeared along with other established features during this transition. Articles began covering controversial subjects like How the Universe Will End instead of hard reporting. This new format proved successful and remained largely unchanged for the next two decades despite initial editorial objections.

• 3. The Ownership Rollercoaster

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  Time Inc. sold Discover to Family Media in 1987 for twenty-six million dollars. Family Media closed down all its magazines in 1991 while placing them up for sale. The Walt Disney Company bought the title later that year and moved its main office to Burbank. Disney doubled the photography budget to overcome issues from skipping two issues during the previous shutdown. Bob Guccione Jr. purchased the magazine from Disney in October 2005 before being ousted as CEO in October 2007. Kalmbach Publishing acquired it in 2010 and moved operations from New York City to Wisconsin in January 2013. LabX Media Group finally acquired Discover from Kalmbach on the 8th of November 2024.

• 4. Circulation And Financial Losses

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  Circulation reached nine hundred twenty-five thousand copies by May 1987 after Time purchased subscription lists from shuttered competitors. Revenue for 1986 totaled six point nine million dollars but the annual net loss hit ten million dollars. From January to July 1991, Discover lost fifteen percent of its advertising revenue while remaining profitable. Family Media issued one point one million copies with their last issue in August 1991. The magazine published combined issues in January February and July August totaling ten issues a year under new ownership. These financial figures highlight the struggle between high circulation numbers and operational losses during various ownership periods.

• 5. Television And Digital Expansion

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  PBS aired Discover: The World of Science from 1983 through 1990 as a monthly hour-long news magazine. Peter Graves hosted the television series which featured topics directly from the print publication. The website later included a collection of blogs related to science including Cosmic Variance and Carl Zimmer's The Loom. Melissa Lafsky contributed Reality Base to the online blog portal before the digital age fully took hold. Disney launched a trade advertising campaign in 1993 designed with Ziff Marketing to raise awareness in the advertising field. This multimedia expansion allowed the brand to reach audiences beyond traditional print subscribers.