Leon Jaroff, the founding editor of Discover magazine, died Saturday at the age of 85, according to The New York Times.
He ran the magazine for four years, beginning in 1980, after convincing Time Inc.'s editors that they should launch a science magazine. Before launching Discover, he worked at Time magazine, where he noted that newsstand sales jumped when a science story was on the cover. Still, it took him a decade to persuade the editors that such a magazine could be a success.
Discover has had its share of troubles recently, but, at age 32, it has long outlived its competitors, notably Science Digest and Science80/86. Jaroff deserves some of the credit.
-Paul Raeburn
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