Dandy may be on its way out – but plenty of publications aimed at children are booming

The impending demise of The Dandy has been widely lamented today by journalists who evoked fond memories of reading it in their youths.

The Daily Mail’s Simon Heffer was among them (who started reading it at the age of 6).

But if The Dandy should be closed down by Dundee-based DC Thomson (or more likely merged with sister title the Beano) it doesn’t mean that youngsters are eschewing print completely.

While no-one can come near the post-War peak circulation of 2m for The Dandy – plenty of publications aimed at children are booming.

Monthly title Moshi Monsters (based on the game of the same name) is the top seller with 162,836 circulation in the second half of last year.

Weekly newspaper for kids First News was up 11.3 per cent in the second half of last year to 50,411 and all manner of educational TV spin-off mags aimed at pre-schoolers seem to do well. Overall the pre-school mags market had a total per-issue circulation of just under a million in the second half of last year (up 10 per cent year on year).

While sales of The Dandy were down 50 per cent year on year to 7,489 in the second half of last year, sister title The Beano fared better at 38,333 (down 4.4 per cent year on year).

See this website on Thursday afternoon for a full round-up of magazine circulations in the first half of this year.