July 3, 2012

Digital youth mag launches in print

A new free print magazine for youngsters will be published in Sunderland later this month – five months after it launched as an e-magazine.

Spark Magazine is a partnership between community media project Spark Sunderland, which is run by volunteers and students from around the city, and advertising and printing is managed by Johnston Press daily the Sunderland Echo.

Spark Sunderland said 6,000 copies of the magazine will be printed six times a year and distributed around the city.

The first print issue is being launched to coincide with the Sunderland International Airshow on 20 July.

The same editorial team will work on the print title, which will also be available online.

The magazine will feature ‘augmented reality’ technology from mobile specialists Aurasma, allowing readers to download a free app called ‘Spark View’, available for iPhone and Android handsets, and hover over enabled pages to view extra video content.

Editor Christopher Smith said: ‘It’s fantastic to be able to extend the Spark brand into print. It’s a great opportunity to produce a real youth-targeted publication that builds on our online success with the magazine to date.

‘The augmented reality technology puts a great spin on things too – its always nice to get a little extra something for nothing and we think our readers will really engage with this clever new tool.

‘There’s so much happening in Sunderland right now and we’re thrilled to be able to cover it from a young perspective.”

Mike Wardley, media sales manager at Johnston’s Northeast Press, said:

‘This is a very exciting opportunity for us and we are thrilled to work with everybody involved with Spark, and to have the opportunity to create a fantastic new product that is solely going to be aimed at the students and young people of Sunderland.”

Spark originally launched as a website in 2010 and was followed by the launch of the e-magazine in February this year.

Topics in this article : Johnston Press