In building the Kiplinger Washington Letters and Changing Times magazine during the years that followed, he created a new form of economic journalism - reporting that was direct and unadorned and that always explained to the readers why the story was important to them.

In 1921, he and two partners started the Kiplinger Washington Agency, answering requests for specific information. Soon he sent business clients a weekly letter, explaining what the government was doing and how it would affect them. The Letters started slowly but today have 400,000 subscribers, who pay $63 a year. The five newsletters still follow the Kiplinger style: conclusions first; unidentified sources who can speak freely; and always an answer to the reader's implicit question: "So what?"

One subscriber was the cement contractor for the construction of the Pentagon. When Japan invaded Malaya in 1941, Kiplinger warned that much of the world's rubber supply would be cut off. The contractor rented a warehouse in Alexandria and, following the advice, filled it with all the tires he could find - which kept his trucks moving throughout the war.

Kiplinger saw that the average consumer needed objective information on personal economics, so in 1947 he began Changing Times. He had confidence in his ideas, recalls his son Austin, who succeeded as head of the privately held company when W. M. died in 1967. "He always thought in terms of real need - what information people need and what eventually they'll be willing to pay for."

Today, Changing Times - retitled Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine - has 1.1 million readers. Austin Kiplinger edits the Letters, his son Knight edits the magazine, and his other son, Todd, directs the company's own investments. At every editorial meeting, they still ask the classic Kiplinger question: "So what?"