Personal Finance News, Investing Advice, Business Forecasts - Financial Magazine

Kiplinger (pronounced KIP-ling-er) is a Washington, D.C.-based publisher of business forecasts and personal finance advice, available in print and online.

Our best-known publications are The Kiplinger Letter, a weekly business and economic forecasting periodical for people in management, and the monthly Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine. The total paid circulation of our periodicals approaches 900,000. Our fast-growing Web site, Kiplinger.com, attracts 4.5 million unique visits and 30 million page views per month..

With a paid circulation, in print and online nearly 100,000 (September 2016), The Kiplinger Letter is considered the most widely read business forecasting periodical in the world.

Its subscribers include people in the management of for-profit and non-profit enterprises, both large and small--businesses, government agencies, universities and schools, trade associations, unions, etc. In four pages of text each week, the Letter tries to alert its clients to what is likely to happen in business and the economy, legislation and regulation in Washington and the states, demographics, technology, world affairs, politics and investing. The Letter is nonpartisan and does not advocate for or against any particular outcome or point of view.

Launched in 1923, The Kiplinger Letter pioneered a terse, colloquial writing style in which the key points of each topic are underscored for easy scanning. In a technique W. M. Kiplinger devised and dubbed "sweep-line," each line of copy--the full width of the page--ends in hard punctuation (a period or comma) at the right margin, not breaking awkwardly to wrap around to the next line.

The Kiplinger Letter rose to prominence, and experienced strong circulation growth, during the Great Depression, when W. M. Kiplinger and his staff had very good contacts within FDR’s "brain trust," enabling the Letter to give its readers very accurate early warning of key programs in the New Deal that would transform the American economy. 

While not primarily a political analysis newsletter, The Kiplinger Letter has correctly predicted the outcome of every presidential election since 1924—including exceptionally close races in 1960, 1976 and 2000--with the notable exception of the 1948 contest between incumbent Harry S Truman and GOP challenger Thomas Dewey.

Kiplinger said Dewey would win easily and get reelected in 1952. The Kiplinger Magazine created a special issue—which was in the mail to subscribers on election day—titled "What Dewey Will Do." The fact that Kiplinger had plenty of company in its faulty prediction was no consolation to editor in chief W. M. Kiplinger, who apologized to his subscribers and criticized himself for failing to keep on reporting right down to the wire.

The Kiplinger Tax Letter

With over 80,000 biweekly subscribers, The Tax Letter is the most widely read tax advisory newsletter, with readers at law and accounting firms, corporate CFO and general counsel offices, and the homes of high-net-worth individuals. In four pages each issue, covering both business and personal taxation, the Letter tries to advise its readers on coming changes in tax law and regulations, recent rulings and interpretations by the IRS, Tax Court and states, and strategies for minimizing taxes. It was launched in 1925.