University of Mississippi

1990-2010 

Favorable demographics and economic clout made children “the hottest marketing trend” 

of the 1990s and this trend translated to the magazine industry.  An “absolute explosion” of 81 

new children’s magazines introduced in five years during the 1990s increased the total to more 

than 150.

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“By introducing more magazines to the field, more marketers have stood up and paid 

notice to the kids, the kids’ buying power and the kids’ spending patterns” said Leigh Novog, 

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national marketing manager for 

Boys’ Life

 in 1996.

7

  

Publishers courted the “yuppie spawn” of the baby boomers and protected their bottom 

line by introducing niche publications.

8

 

Girls’ Life

 publisher and founding editor Karen Bokram 

explained the trend in a 1995 interview. 

Now is the first time a generation of kids have their own cable channel and own products. 

Like Crest, we used our parents’ and now they have their own toothpaste. They demand 

high quality, interesting products. It’s the first time—due to sheer mass numbers—kids 

are making decisions in households, kids are in control.

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Bokram launched 

Girls’ Life

 in 1994 to fill the gap between 

Highlights

 and 

Seventeen

 

and to create a place for girls between the ages of eight and 14 to learn, explore, and have fun 

with stories about cooking, entertainment, parties, and fiction.   

Editorial quality and circulation of top tier kids magazines blossomed in the 1990s along 

with the increased number of publications. The category was transformed from virtually 

nonexistent to a marketing force with a combined circulation of 3.5 million—larger than 

Newsweek

 or 

People

 and equivalent to the entire category of parenting magazines.

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During the 1990s Kids’ Magnet, a consortium of executives with 12 children’ magazines 

with advertising, worked to prove the effectiveness of print versus television for reaching 

children. Conclusions from a Kids’ Magnet commissioned study of 427 children ages seven to 

14 in six cities in 1995 revealed that:  

•

 

Children repeatedly return to the same magazine, with each issue viewed multiple 

times. On average, kids look at the same issue of any magazine 3.7 times, and 5.9 

times if it’s their top choice. 

•

 

The importance of magazines in children’s lives addresses their desires for fun, 

information, and control. 

•

 

Magazine ads are an effective vehicle for generating children’s involvement with 

products. Unlike TV, they can pour over a product ad repeatedly.

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Kids Magnet predicted a combination of media consisting of television, radio, print 

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43 

media, and books for the future. One example of this media combination during the 1990s was a 

multimedia literary project, 

Ghostwriter

,

 

featured print, outreach and software along with a 42-

part mystery and adventure television program.

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 Copies of 

Ghostwriter 

magazine

 

were given 

away at schools, libraries, Public Broadcast System stations, literacy, and youth groups. 

The frenzy attracted publishers as diverse as the Burger King Corporation with its 

quarterly 32 page magazine mailed to the three million members of its Kids Club program in 

1993; 

Time for Kids

 for schoolchildren launched in 1995; 

Muse

, a nonfiction science bimonthly 

for children six to 14 created through a partnership between 

Smithsonian

 and Cricket Magazine 

Group in 1996; and Carus Publishing’s advertising-free 

Click

 science magazine for readers age 

three to seven in 1998.

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Children’s magazine trend observer Stoll found little originality in magazines of the 

1990s boom. “Most are spin-offs—a number of which are outstanding—and some are rip-offs,” 

he said, “which ultimately won’t appeal to kids because they are being done by people without a 

commitment to children and education.”

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