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with the big'uns
World, made over as Kids, will take advertising
By Jeff Bercovici
National Geographic World, the National Geographic Society’s magazine for children ages 8-14, is growing up.
Beginning with its October 2002 issue, the 26-year-old title will change its name to National Geographic Kids and accept its first display advertising.
Until now, it has relied on sponsorships from companies like Kodak and the U.S. Mint, who have underwritten essay contests and other events.
National Geographic Kids will also establish a continuous newsstand presence in a bid to increase the title’s circulation, currently at 700,000, to the level of its competitors, which include Nickelodeon magazine, Disney Adventures, Sports Illustrated Kids and Boys' Life.
“In the past, the title ‘World’ needed explanation,” says associate publisher Rainer Jenss.
“People could have thought it was a travel magazine. With the name National Geographic Kids, it will be much clearer to the consumer who this magazine is written for and what it’s about.”
To avoid confusion, National Geographic for Kids, an advertising-free magazine that is distributed in classrooms, will change its name to National Geographic Explore this fall.
Editor in chief Melina Gerosa Bellows has been busy making over National Geographic World since coming over from Ladies’ Home Journal two years ago.
“This publication had great bones, great content but a very outdated look,” she says. “These kids today are so sophisticated. You can’t assume that just because these readers are kids they won’t get it. That game's over.”
The editorial still embodies what Bellows calls “the sneak approach to learning,” but she has tried to make the magazine timelier by bringing in stories from the entertainment world and the realm of current events.
Recent stories have looked at the science and technology behind movies including “Star Wars: Attack of the Clones,” “Spider-Man” and “Jimmy Neutron.”
Bellows uses plenty of sidebars, “fun facts” and other devices to break information up into easily digestible bits that won’t feel like dry lessons.
“Kids these days have so much homework and so much stress in their lives,” says Bellows. “The last thing they want to do is face something that looks like more homework.”
In dealing with current events, she says, “The key is to make it age appropriate.”
Thus, the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 inspired a story on rescue dogs. Similarly, with war underway in Afghanistan, National Geographic World seized on a photographer’s rediscovery of National Geographic’s 1985 cover girl, Sharbat Gula, for a story on the lives of Afghan children.
October’s issue will include an article for which the students of P.S. 234, a Manhattan primary school located near World Trade Center Plaza, were given disposable cameras to document their first day back at school after the attacks.
On the circulation side, the big change is that all 10 yearly issues of National Geographic Kids will be distributed to retailers. Until now, only about four issues a year have gone on sale in bookstores and other locations, says Jenss.
The magazine will also add distribution at zoos and aquariums, with the aim of driving circulation to the one million mark within five years.
Disney Adventures currently has a circulation of about 1.1 million. Sports Illustrated Kids’ is 950,000, Nickelodeon’s is 900,000 and Boys’ Life is 1.3 million.
National Geographic Kids’ first display advertiser will be San Francisco-based toy maker Wild Planet, which is also sponsoring a design-your-own-toy contest for readers.
Jenss says the magazine would accept advertising for anything it would not deem inappropriate, such as a violent videogame.
Bellows, for her part, says the idea of exposing kids to advertising doesn’t bother her.
“Advertising is just a fact of life. Kids are already dealing with so much of it in virtually everything that they do. I think they are really savvy.”
June 4, 2002 © 2002 Media Life
-Jeff Bercovici is a staff writer for Media Life.
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