It was originally founded as an alternative to door-to-door magazine subscription sales by offering bulk mail direct marketing of merchandise and periodicals.

By 2010, the company had reached settlements with all 50 states, and in 2023 the Federal Trade Commission ordered PCH to overhaul its sweepstakes processes.

[4] Publishers Clearing House was founded in 1953 in Port Washington, New York by Harold Mertz,[5][6] a former manager of a door-to-door sales team for magazine subscriptions.

When PCH moved its headquarters in 1969, its prior location was donated to the city and renamed the Harold E. Mertz Community Center.

[10] In 1989, two members of its advertising team, Dave Sayer and Todd Sloane, started the Prize Patrol, a publicized event where winners are surprised with a check at their home.

[16] Beginning in the 1990s PCH and its primary competitor, AFP, have experienced a series of lawsuits due in part to concerns that their mailings misled consumers about their odds of winning and implied that magazine purchases increased their chances.

[9] However, government officials from California claimed 5,000 local consumers paid more than $2,500 each in magazine purchases under the false belief that they were increasing their odds of winning the sweepstakes.

[5][19] In 1994 PCH sent mailings telling recipients they were all "finalists", which led to[11] a lawsuit involving the attorneys general of 14 US states.

[29] In 2010 the company paid $3.5 million to the attorneys general of 32 states and the District of Columbia to settle possible contempt charges that it had violated the terms of the 2001 agreement.

The company denied wrongdoing, but agreed to work with both an ombudsman and a compliance counsel who would review its mailings quarterly.

[34] Beginning in late 2021, PCH has been hit with multiple new class action lawsuits, alleging that "Publishers Clearing House sells and rents mailing lists containing subscribers’ personal information to a variety of third parties...with each claiming the publishing company monetizes its subscribers’ private information—including their names and addresses—without consent.

[35][36] In June 2023, the Federal Trade Commission ordered PCH "to overhaul its sweepstakes entry and sales processes, stop surprise fees, and pay $18.5 million to consumers.

"[4] At that time, the FTC also issued a consumer alert describing the deceptive practices in which PCH was found to engage.

[46] Wide Open Spaces is about outdoors lifestyle, the Editorial Director of the publication is Rachael Schultz, formerly of Insider and Hearst Communications.

[47] It's estimated that companies like PCH keep 75 to 90 percent of the fees from the original subscription, while publishers use the increased distribution to improve circulation numbers and revenue from renewals.

[11][48] PCH popularized the idea of using sweepstakes to sell magazine subscriptions in the direct-marketing market and became known by detractors as a producer of junk mail for advertising through mass-mailings.

[citation needed] In 1995, PCH began the tradition of announcing winners of its $10 million prize just after the Super Bowl.

[8] Since their introduction in 1989, these reality TV-style videos of prize-winners surprised at their doorstep with checks for $1,000 to $10 million have been used in widely broadcast television commercials, and, more recently, in the company's online acquisition efforts, websites and social media communications.

Their surprise winning moments have been spoofed by Jay Leno,[64] Conan O'Brien,[65] and the cast of Saturday Night Live;[66] woven into the plots of movies such as Let's Go to Prison,[67][68] The Sentinel,[69] and Knight and Day;[70][71] and Early Edition.

[9] In the summer of 2020 Marie Osmond became a spokesperson for Publishers Clearing House with television and online advertisements as well as direct-to-home mailings.

Publishers Clearing House claims that "Through charitable trusts created by [their] founders, more than 40% of the company profits benefit community organizations.