Grit Magazine: From Williamsport Newspaper to Rural Lifestyle Magazine
Profile updated November 2026
Grit magazine carries the slogan Celebrating Rural America Since 1882, and the history backs it up. It began as a Saturday newspaper in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, became the most widely distributed small-town weekly in the nation through an army of newsboys, and is now a bimonthly rural lifestyle magazine from Topeka. Here is its history, profile, content and staff.
| First issue | December 1882, Williamsport, Pennsylvania |
|---|---|
| Founder | Dietrick Lamade, German-born printer |
| Peak | About 728,000 national edition subscribers in 1957 |
| Owners | Lamade family to 1981; Stauffer Communications; Ogden Publications since 1996 |
| Home | Topeka, Kansas, since 1993 |
| Frequency | Bimonthly magazine |
| Official website | Grit.com |
History of Grit
Grit began in December 1882 as the Saturday edition of the Williamsport Daily Sun and Banner. Dietrick Lamade, a 23-year-old assistant press foreman born in Germany in 1859, set its first headline. When the owners nearly scrapped the struggling edition, Lamade and two partners bought the name and a printing plant, founding Grit Publishing with $1,000 of capital, $150 of it his savings, and relaunched it as an independent Sunday paper.
Lamade aimed Grit at villages and hamlets removed from the influence of big cities, kept it upbeat and pioneered national direct mail and newsboy delivery. By 1932 circulation reached 425,000 in 48 states, and in the 1950s about 30,000 young carriers delivered more than 700,000 copies. Novelists and public figures later recalled selling it door to door as kids.
Lamade died in 1938, and his family ran Grit until 1981, when Stauffer Communications of Topeka bought it. After 111 years in Williamsport the operation moved to Topeka in 1993, and in 1996 Grit and Capper's Weekly were sold to Ogden Publications. By 2006 Grit was no longer a newspaper but a bimonthly magazine.
Grit Today
Grit is one of Ogden Publications' core rural titles, alongside Mother Earth News, Capper's Farmer and Farm Collector. Ogden reports a combined print and digital readership for Grit of nearly 900,000.
The magazine focuses on practical country living for small-acreage owners and rural families, with sister websites on backyard chickens and beekeeping produced jointly with Mother Earth News.
What Grit Is Publishing Now
Country skills
Tractors and tools, fencing, building projects and equipment maintenance for small farms.
Livestock and gardens
Poultry, goats, beekeeping, vegetable gardens and food preservation.
Rural heritage
Grit history features and reader stories that echo the paper's original mission of bringing good news from small towns.
Grit Editors and Staff
People who have led Grit, from its masthead and published histories:
- Karmin Garrison - Lead Editor
- Hank Will - Editor at Large; former Ogden editorial director and Grit editor-in-chief
- Rebecca Martin - Technical Editor
- Jean Teller - Senior Associate Editor
- Bill Uhler - Publisher
- Dietrick Lamade - Founder (1859-1938)
Who Reads Grit
Grit readers live on small farms, acreages and in rural towns. The 2022 Census of Agriculture found 74% of U.S. farms sell $50,000 or less a year, the same small-scale rural audience that Lamade had in mind in 1882.
Grit started out printing humorous tidbits for small-town readers, so it has always known the value of a laugh. That tradition lives on in a sharper form at farm.FM, where farm satire, farm humor and ranch humor send up rural life with affection. The farm jokes there would have sold well from a newsboy's bag in 1950.
farm.FM, the nation's first satirical farm site, also runs Tractor Tunes, a country music lineup for farmers. For a sample of the writing, try the archive of one of its staff humorists.
Grit Sources and Agriculture Authority Links
- Grit: Grit History - the magazine's own history by senior associate editor Jean Teller.
- Wikipedia: Grit - background on founder, editors and circulation.
- Mental Floss: Grit newspaper history - the story of Grit's newsboys and ownership changes.
- ExplorePAhistory: Grit historical marker - Pennsylvania's historical marker on Lamade and Grit.
- USDA NASS Census of Agriculture - official data on small U.S. farms.
Grit FAQ
When did Grit start?
Grit began in December 1882 as the Saturday edition of the Williamsport Daily Sun and Banner.
Who founded Grit?
Dietrick Lamade, a German-born printer who bought the name with two partners and built Grit into a national paper.
Who owns Grit magazine now?
Ogden Publications of Topeka, Kansas, has owned Grit since 1996.
Is Grit still a newspaper?
No. Grit is now a bimonthly rural lifestyle magazine.
From a failing Saturday edition to a national institution, Grit magazine has spent more than 140 years telling rural America's story in a hopeful voice.