How does recession affect the children’s magazine market?

In an increasingly restricted, competitive and saturated children’s market, Siobhan Galvin, associate publisher at Egmont Magazines, suggests why the children’s magazine market will defy the downturn in 2009…

The children of 2009 have grown up in a vastly diverse world of mass media, rapidly changing technologies and changing social standards. They have access to an infinite number of media outlets and while parents cope with the pace of their children’s developing media admirably, it is the children who make the choices about the media that they consume. For example, recent research has shown that 48% of parents purchase children’s magazines because their child asked for it*.

In recent years the children’s market has become increasingly saturated as publishers compete to maintain the attention of a highly sophisticated demographic. In addition, 2008 saw one of the bleakest trading environments for the magazine publishing industry in recent years. Advertising budgets have been cut to accommodate current economic restrictions and media owners are feeling the effects of declining audiences. However, when forecasting the outlook for children’s markets, publishers ought to bear one thing in mind: it may appear that kids are growing up faster than ever before, but underneath they’re still the same. This is why the children’s market is resilient.

The most successful children’s products – whatever the product, platform, brand or however big the license – all subscribe to one golden rule: content is king. The marketing, branding and packaging of a product might help make up the customer’s mind initially, but it is engaging content that will keep the kids coming back time and time again. Successful children’s magazines, for example, know what their readers want before they do themselves. Stories need to be gripping or laugh-out-loud hilarious, puzzles still need to be just hard enough, jokes need to be crack-up funny, arts and crafts need to be achievable (and result in something attractive!). Every single thing in the magazine has to earn its place by being relevant and compelling, whatever the age of the reader.

The same rule applies for multi-platform offerings for products. An additional online platform can supplement the content of a product through providing interactivity that would otherwise not be possible with one platform. A magazine website can offer interactive games, videos and competitions that a print magazine cannot and offer readers another way to gain access to their brand. In addition, advertising space on a website is not limited to a number of pages and does not compete with magazine content for the attention of the reader. At Egmont, particularly for our own brand titles Toxic and Go Girl, we aim to offer advertisers multi-platform packages across print and online to deliver campaigns that are really targeted, accountable and measurable. For publishers operating in the current market it is important to build the profile of their brands online and to develop the digital side of their business, but not at the expense of their print brands.

In a world of multimedia choice, magazines still hold a central place in the mix because of the medium’s powerful connection and uniquely close relationship with the consumer. Magazines are an active and an interactive medium – they are highly visual, collectable, tradeable and are full of activities. What’s more, parents approve of magazines – they love to see their children enjoying reading, filling in puzzles, telling the jokes out loud, sticking the posters on their bedroom walls and being really involved in the product. Almost 40% of parents spend between 30 minutes and one hour looking at and reading each issue of their child’s magazine with them*.

The children’s magazine market has weathered the financial storm of 2008 better than other media and it is likely that it will defy the gloom in 2009. This is due to a number of reasons:

1. Children are the last thing that parents are willing to economise on. Parents want to see their children engaged and entertained and therefore they generally view magazines for their children as an affordable treat.
2. Children’s magazines are inexpensive when compared to other media types and are therefore not unaffordable.
3. Children are fiercely loyal to their brands. If a child has been a fan of a television show then they are likely to look for their favourite characters on the internet, print and on merchandise.
4. Advertising does not account for a large percentage of revenue for children’s magazine publishers.

* Egmont Parent Research / Omnibus Research Survey / December 08 TNS