University of Mississippi

                                                 Twentieth Century 

Expansion of the magazine empire has not been easy. Twentieth century threats to leisure 

time previously spent reading magazines included the radio in the mid-1920s, television after 

World War II, and the computer in the 1980s and 1990s. Yet magazines survived this 

competition and even improved because of it. (Television influenced publications to shorten, 

sharpen writing and enhance design with an increased number of improved images.)

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One of the earliest children’s magazines to have an online presence, the spinoff 

Sports 

Illustrated Kids 

embraced the competitor with the launch of its Web site in 1995. Progressive 

publisher Cleary Simpson explained the draw of new media, 

With kids you find a very different environment, edutainment. Online is beyond print and 

very complementary. But print magazines are always marketable, personable, and 

portable. The way kids read magazines—they all save it and have every issue from the 

past five years and share it with friends. Seven or eight kids see each issue. Computer 

usage is very different.

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The last decades of the twentieth century experienced an absolute explosion of new 

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magazines for children while their role to educate and entertain continued, specialized 

periodicals flourished, and spinoffs, junior versions of adult publications, became one of the 

biggest trends.  

“Kids are among the world’s harshest critics, and if children’s magazines are hot items it 

is because kids like them,” said Lynn Lehmkuhl, media executive and former editor in chief of 

the now defunct 

Nickelodeon

 magazine. “Accustomed to living in a media-rich society, kids 

want quick, up-to-date information, short articles about interesting subjects—in an inviting 

format with an abundance of color photographs or illustrations.”

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All of this continues in the twenty-first century, although not all of the new magazines 

created during the exploding category of the 1990s have survived. Of the 12 members of the 

Kids MagNet consortium of children’s periodical publishers in 1995 only four exist in 2011.