The Week Launches New Mag for Younger Readers

WeekJunior2New print magazine aims to help children “make sense of the world.”

Can a magazine really change the way a child sees the world?

If you’re the head of The Week, you sure think so.

“We started by thinking about how we might reach a younger audience – in fact a much younger audience,” writes CEO Kerin O’Connor in Campaign about the 20-year-old company’s plans to launch a new print title.

“The Week already works well for clever teenagers, but we were interested to see if we could apply its principles of clarity and curiosity to 8- to 14-year-olds. Could we help children make sense of the world?” O’Connor asks.

To understand the answer to that question, they talked to children, parents and teachers about the role of news media in their lives. What they discovered made them realize there was an unmet need out there among children.

“We found bright children around the country filled with a desire to understand the world around them. After all when you’re young, the world can seem a complex and difficult place that presents many questions and thoughts.

“We began to think about how our new product might help children to navigate it and develop a point of view that matters – their own,” O’Connor writes. Their field tests showed that children had a huge appetite for news content that made sense to them, and they have a delightful and natural affinity for print in this digital age.

Their solution is The Week Junior, which launches in a couple of weeks and has already racked up more than 1,000 subscribers. If you have young, curious readers on your holiday list, this might be a good option!