Nearly half of the nation's independently- published newspapers either stopped publishing or joined larger companies during the 1930s. By World War 2, only one hundred twenty cities had competing newspapers.
Weekly and monthly publications faced the same problem as daily newspapers—increased competition from radio and films. Many magazines failed. The two big successes of the period were Life magazine and the Reader's Digest.
Life had stories for everyone about film actors, news events, or just daily life in the home or on the farm. Its photographs were the greatest anywhere. Reader's Digest published shorter forms of stories from other magazines and sources.