As the years went on there were some differences in the contents of the two editions, reflecting fiction for which The Strand did not hold the US rights (such as The Return of Sherlock Holmes, which was commissioned by Collier's magazine) and non-fiction that would not interest most US readers (such as articles about personalities in the House of Commons).

[5] The Strand Magazine ceased publication in March 1950, forced out of the market by declining circulation and rising costs.

Its last editor was Macdonald Hastings, distinguished war correspondent and later TV reporter and contributor to the Eagle boys' comic.

[11] 38 of the Sherlock Holmes stories, including The Hound of the Baskervilles, were illustrated by Sidney Paget in The Strand.

[15] Other contributors included E. W. Hornung, Graham Greene, Rudyard Kipling, W. Somerset Maugham, E. Nesbit, Dorothy L. Sayers, Georges Simenon, Leo Tolstoy, and H. G. Wells,[3] as well as Grant Allen, Margery Allingham, H. C. McNeile (aka Sapper), J. E. Preston Muddock, E. C. Bentley, Mary Angela Dickens, C. B. Fry, Walter Goodman, W. W. Jacobs, Arthur Morrison, Edgar Wallace, Max Beerbohm and Dornford Yates.

In addition to the many fiction pieces and illustrations, The Strand has been also known for some time as the source of ground-breaking brain teasers, under a column called "Perplexities", first written by Henry Dudeney.

In that same year, Dudeney produced an article, "The Psychology of Puzzle Crazes", reflecting and analysing the demand for such works.

The magazine's iconic cover, an illustration looking eastwards down London's Strand towards St Mary-le-Strand, with the title suspended on telegraph wires, was the work of Victorian artist and designer George Charles Haité.

The initial cover featured a corner plaque showing the name of Burleigh Street, home to the magazine's original offices.

The lettering on the plaque in Haité's design was later changed when Newnes moved to the adjacent address of Southampton Street.

[19] It has published fiction by many well-known writers including John Mortimer, Ray Bradbury, Alexander McCall Smith, Ruth Rendell, Colin Dexter, Edward Hoch, James Grippando, and Tennessee Williams.