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". 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. A year earlier, the
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) had launched a similar magazine called
Science 80 (not to be confused with its flagship academic journal,
Science). Shortly thereafter, 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. "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. In October 2005,
Bob Guccione, Jr., founder of
Spin and
Gear magazines, and some
private equity partners purchased the magazine from Disney. Guccione was 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". 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,
Discover's executive editor, became editor-in-chief. 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''. Becky Lang was the editor-in-chief until mid-2020. On May 1, 2024, Kalmbach Media announced the sale of most of its titles to Firecrown Media, as well as its Kalmbach Books division and related e-commerce sites, leaving
Discover magazine as its sole remaining publication. and on November 8, 2024, LabX Media Group acquired
Discover from Kalmbach. ==Blog portal==