Watchtower

The Watchtower magazine is the primary religious magazine published by the Jehovah’s Witnesses through the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. Formed in 1879 by founder Charles Taze Russell under the name Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence,1 it has been published continuously ever since, evolving into one of the largest-circulation magazines worldwide, with each issue having a print run of 42 million copies in more than 190 languages.2 The magazine is published in two editions: a Public Edition, which is distributed by Witnesses during their public ministry (such as their door-to-door ministry and approaching people in public spaces), and a Study Edition used in congregational meetings with directed questions for use during the service.3 The Watchtower is distributed free of charge and contains no advertisements, being funded entirely by voluntary donations.4

  1. JW.org, “Publishing the Watchtower,” JW.ORG, n.d., https://www.jw.org/en/library/books/Jehovahs-Witnesses-Proclaimers-of-Gods-Kingdom/Publishing-The-Watchtower/. ↩︎
  2. JW.org, “The Watchtower—No Other Magazine Comes Close,” JW.ORG, 2025, https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/activities/publishing/watchtower-awake-magazine. ↩︎
  3. Wikipedia Contributors, “The Watchtower,” Wikipedia (Wikimedia Foundation, November 7, 2019), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Watchtower. ↩︎
  4. JW.org, “The Watchtower-No Other Magazine Comes Close.” ↩︎