Discover Magazine September 2009

Discover is a science magazine that publishes articles about science for a general audience. The monthly magazine was launched in October 1980 by Time Inc. It was sold to Family Media, the owners of Health, in 1987. Walt Disney Company bought the magazine when Family Media went out of business in 1991. In October 2005 Discover was sold to two media investment companies. Bob Guccione, Jr., founder of Spin and Gear magazines, served as CEO for the first two years. The current CEO is Henry Donahue; the current editor-in-chief is Corey S. Powell.

Discover was originally launched into a burgeoning market for science magazines aimed at educated non-professionals, intended to be somewhat easier to read than Scientific American but more detailed and science-oriented than magazines like Popular Science. Shortly after Discover was launched, the AAAS launched a similar magazine, Science 80, (not to be confused with their similarly named journal), and both Science News and Science Digest changed their formats to follow the new trend.