Confessions of a magazine reader by DAVID OGILVY Author of “Confessions of an Advertising Man” READ 34 magazines every month. I like them all, but the one I admire most is Reader’s Digest. I The editors of The Digest are in possession of a remarkable technique: they know how to present complicated subjects in a way that engages the reader. This gives The Digest’s editors great influence in the world. They put their influence to admirable use. They are on the side of the angels. They are crusaders, and they carry their crusades, in 14 languages, to 75 million souls a month. They crusade against cigarettes, which kill people. They crusade against bill-boards, which make the world hideous. They crusade against boxing, which turns men into vegetables. They crusade against pornography. They crusade for integration, for the inter-faith movement, for the Public Defender system, for human freedom in all its forms. Good Pope John once told The Digest editors, “How comforting it will be for you, when you come to the close of your lives on earth, to be able to say to yourselves: We have served the truth.” No log-rolling, no backscratching Ten years ago Reader’s Digest first opened its columns to advertising. This worried me. I was afraid that The Digest editors would start pulling their punches in deference to advertisers and even give editorial support to advertisers—an obvious temptation to magazine editors. But this has not happened; The Digest has remained incorruptible. No log-rolling, no backscratching. The success of The Digest is deserved. It does not depend on prurience, voyeurism or cheap sensationalism. What The Digest editors offer their readers are ideas, education (practical and spiritual) and self-improvement. The instinct of these editors is toward clarity of expression. The current issue, as I write, includes articles on religion in schools, on the Congo, urban renewal, violence on television, Abraham