Founded in 1921 by George T. Delacorte Jr. as part of his Dell Publishing Company, Dell Magazines became well-known for its countless puzzle magazines. The first of these to be published as Dell Crossword Puzzles in 1931. The company later expanded into areas such as word searches, math and logic puzzles. Dell was also noted for its fiction magazines, among the best known including Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Asimov's Science Fiction and Analog Science Fiction and Fact.

Dell Magazines was sold in March 1996 to Crosstown Publications by Doubleday, which had bought its parent company Dell Publications out in 1976. Headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut, the company is now a subsidiary of Penny Publications LLC.