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.
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.
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