Feature: Print And The New Media Generation

Babies. They’re the new lads, or perhaps the new decorating and gardening. It seems that when Natmags closed its year-old parenting title M last July and integrated Having a Baby into Good Housekeeping (see Natmags Gives Parenting Magazine The Chop), or when Emap Elan folded Parents in August and blamed the absence of a market for child development magazines, they did not see the baby boom which was on the way.

Perhaps it was all the talk of the “birth of a new millennium”, or perhaps the wave of Spice babies, Gallagher babies, supermodel babies and ageing Madonna babies that culminated in the latest little celebrity A-list addition, Leo Blair. Whatever the reason, the media world is producing offerings for new parents almost as fast as maternity wards.

This year has so far produced a bi-annual in-store magazine from high street store Mothercare, brought out in February by Daniel Scott Publishing. Then in March Pregnancy and Baby’s Best Buys publishers WV brought out a new monthly title New Baby , aimed at women in the late stages of pregnancy and first months of motherhood. Finally, in May, plans for the circulation of Beach Magazine’s

Circulation figures for UK baby and parenting magazines showed a varied performance year on year. Top title Mother & Baby fell nearly 6% for the July to December period, while its closest rival Pregnancy managed to put on just 0.6%. This goes some way to explain why the big names are planning for next generation to be on-line and digital from day one.

The team behind The Baby Channel said in March that they are planning to go live with their digital, cable and satellite channel for parents in the spring of next year (see Baby Channel Sets Delivery Date of Spring 2001

This week will see another baby website expanding its horizons. www.WebBaby.co.uk claims to be the UK’s leading parenting website and is teaming up with Carlton Television to launch a joint TV and internet advertiser-funded daytime programming venture.

Showing across Carlton’s three terrestrial regions, the 10-week series Baby Baby will be hosted by celebrity new mum Melinda Messenger and aimed at new parents and parents-to-be. The programmes are to include medical, lifestyle and consumer advice, along with interviews with celebrity mums and medical experts.

Carlton and WebBaby.co.uk are putting joint investment into the production, sponsorship and promotion of the series. WebBaby will host online chats with Melinda and feature weekly video streams from the shows. Further projects between the two companies could result in fitness videos for new mums and a range of parenting publications due for an autumn delivery.

Feature: Anna Wise