November 17, 2015

Dennis seeks to cash in on growing children’s mag sector with launch of The Week Junior

The Week magazine has launched a new edition aimed at readers aged between eight and 14.

The Week Junior's first edition comes out this Friday at a cost of 99p. This price will increase to £1.99 after the second issue.

The magazine has a full-time editorial staff of five and is edited by Anna Bassi.

The Week, owned by Dennis Publishing, was launched 20 years ago. It recorded an average weekly circulation of 202,842 in the first half of 2015, according to ABC.

This figure has increased every half-year since 2000. ABC records are not available for the five years before this.

In the first half of 2015, children's magazines were among the best performing magazine groups. The 12 magazines categorised as being for primary aged boys saw their combined circulations grow by 36.2 per cent to 409,227. And the ten titles for girls of the same age recorded a combined average circulation of 395,192, up 24.3 per cent.

First News, a weekly newspaper for children, recorded an average circulation of 79,431 in the first half of 2015, up 12.4 per cent year on year.

First News editor Nicky Cox told Press Gazette the paper's growing circulation shows younger readers are interested in print. In August, she said: “Children have grown up with the digital age so they don’t have the same sense of excitement about it as adults do – because it’s something they’ve always known. So actually something that’s ‘real’ and that’s in front of them that they can hold and touch has more appeal than something digital.”