Soap Opera Digest
Debut issue (November 1975), featuring the cast of Love of Life
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| Editorial Director | Stephanie Sloane |
|---|---|
| Staff writers | Mara Levinsky Devin Owens |
| Categories | Entertainment |
| Frequency | Weekly |
| Total circulation (December 2011) |
292,219 |
| Founder | Angela Shapiro and Jerome Shapiro |
| First issue | November 1975 |
| Company | American Media, Inc. |
| Country |
 United States
|
| Based in | New York City |
| Language | English |
| Website | www.SoapOperaDigest.com |
| ISSN | 0164-3584 |
Soap Opera Digest is a weekly magazine covering American daytime soap operas. It features onscreen and offscreen news about the series, interviews with and articles about performers, storyline summaries and analysis, and related promotional information. Founded in 1975, the magazine has historically included certain prime time soap operas in its coverage as well.
Soap Opera Digest debuted in November 1975, co-founded by Angela Shapiro and Jerome Shapiro and featuring actors John Aniston, Ron Tomme, Audrey Peters, Birgitta Tolksdorf, Jerry Lacy, and Tudi Wiggins of Love of Life on its first cover. In the early 1990s, the magazine had up to 1.4 million subscribers.
In 1980, Network Publishing Corporation purchased the magazine from Shapiro, who went on to found Soap Opera Update. Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation bought the magazine from Gerry M. Ritterman in 1989. Ritterman had owned Soap Opera Digest for three years before selling it to Murdoch Magazines; Ritterman earned more than $50 million from his share of the $70 million purchase price. According to Ritterman, he'd purchased the magazine at 750,000 subscribers and sold it at 1.3 million. Murdoch sold Soap Opera Digest to K-III Communications in 1991. K-III was renamed Primedia in 1997, and sold its magazines to Source Interlink in 2007. American Media, Inc. began publishing Soap Opera Digest in 2011.
Soap Opera Digest originally published monthly, moved to triweekly issues in 1979, biweekly issues in 1980, and on April 1, 1997 started publishing weekly. The issue dates were on Tuesdays, but changed to Mondays beginning with the April 16, 2012 issue.
Meredith Brown Berlin was named executive editor (the magazine's equivalent of editor-in-chief) in 1982 at the age of 26, making her the youngest editor of a national magazine at that time. Ritterman later promoted her to editor-in-chief and vice president. She stayed in that position till 1991. During her tenure, the magazine saw its greatest circulation growth. Berlin was followed by Lynn Leahey, who headed the magazine for 27 years. In June 2011, Stephanie Sloane replaced Leahey as the magazine's editorial director.
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Wikipedia