Many magazines failed. The two big successes of the period were Life Magazine and the Reader's Digest.

VOA: special.2011.04.14

"I picked up a Reader's Digest, and there I read that for $100 million the World Health Organization had eradicated small pox."

VOA: standard.2010.08.02

At its peak in the 1970s, Reader's Digest boasted a circulation of 17 million in the United States alone, and its international editions sold millions more copies in many languages.

VOA: standard.2010.03.08

Reader's Digest fans were suckers for sweepstakes, and its mailings scored 20% response rates.

FORBES: Old Dog, New Tricks

Once the voice of small-town America, under its founders Reader's Digest actively spread a far right-wing agenda.

ECONOMIST: Hard to digest

That changed in 1952, when Reader's Digest published "Cancer by the Carton, " an article detailing the dangers of smoking.

CNN: A brief history of tobacco