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When print is your primary product...

Most print-first publishers have had to grapple with developing digital strategies and audiences over the past few decades, some with more success than others. But for a few publications, a significant digital publishing strategy just isn’t a viable option.

The Week Junior is one such title. It’s a current affairs magazine aimed at children between 8 and 14; an age where interaction with online content is fairly controlled. Certainly few kids will be buying print magazines off the back of a great article they read online.

With all the talk of a print revival, and a number of high-profile launches – and relaunches – of magazines, there’s a growing hype around the appeal of print for its collectibility, tactile experience and the appeal of switching off from a screen.

AMO’s Jacob Donnelly recently penned a sense-check to the print hysteria. “Print is an awesome product,” he wrote. “But that’s what it is: a product. It’s part of a broader swathe of offerings that media operators should have in their toolkit to ensure that they’re delivering value to their audience.”

“Here is the future of media… niche publications that are highly monetized with reader revenue that have much smaller teams. Print can play a part, but it won’t likely be the part.”

But for The Week Junior, print has no choice but to be the part.

The magazine was launched in the UK in 2015 and in the US weeks before the pandemic hit in 2020. It defied all the odds and expectations, with Chief Executive Kerin O’Connor saying that “When we launched The Week Junior in the UK, everyone told us that children don’t read the news. We proved them wrong.”

So what tactics and strategies does a publisher have to consider when print is the sole product for a brand? We caught up with Managing Director Richard Campbell and US Editor in Chief Andrea Barbalich to find out.

Spotting an opportunity in the US

The Week Junior US was the first news weekly print to launch in the US since The Week debuted in 2001. Each edition features big news stories, science and technology updates, debates, animals and environment features, and deep dives.

The UK edition has 98,000 subscribers, but a much higher market penetration than the US given the respective population size. Despite that, The Week Junior US is growing well. “We’re well in excess of 100,000 paying subscribers now,” Campbell said of the US edition. “Our current rate of growth is between 15% and 20% versus the same time last year. So our subscriptions file is in really robust shape… we’re definitely in a strong growth phase at the moment.”

Although launching just weeks before global lockdowns was scary for the team at the time, Campbell said the pandemic ended up accelerating their growth as there was a huge demand for educational content from parents and carers. “The fundamentals of the product market fit are really good, and the fundamentals of the product are really, really good,” he said. “But I think the pandemic definitely gave a helping hand and enabled it to scale more quickly than it would have done otherwise.”

Knowing your worth

Campbell noted that a key part of making a printed product a success was pricing it properly. Many US publishers have a reputation for wild discounting of print magazines, but The Week Junior US’s stock acquisition offer is $49 for 26 issues. “Everyone that comes onto the file is paying $2 an issue or thereabouts,” he said. “Everyone pays proper money for the subscription.”

The publisher does have a 6 ‘risk-free’ issues deal where if a subscriber cancels in their first six weeks, they won’t be charged. This puts the onus firmly on the print product to be high quality. “The conversion is really good,” Campbell said, although he declined to share specific figures. In the UK, where there is an equivalent offer of six free issues, “the conversion from those free issues to payment is actually really strong.”

One unique challenge the brand faces is that the purchase decisions aren’t being made by the target audience. Getting copies of the magazine into the hands of parents is the best way to explain what the magazine is about and convince them it’s helpful for their children. “Our product is our most valuable marketing tool. So if we’re really confident that overall, in aggregate terms, the vast majority of people will go on to pay for it once we’ve got that out to them, then we’re happy to invest in making that the case to start with,”said Campbell, explaining their investment in trial issues.

“[Parents] really do get to see for themselves if we’re keeping our word, and our pay-up rates and our renewal rates show that they overwhelmingly believe that,” The Week Junior US Editor in Chief Andrea Barbalich said.

The Week Junior has another advantage: being a print product is very appealing for parents and carers looking to reduce screen time for their children. “A big part of our promise is the idea that children will be reading on paper. The parents love that, but the children love it too,” Barbalich explained. “They love running to the mailbox to get it, they’re excited. They love having their names on it. The tactile part of it becomes a big part of the love and joy they feel for the magazine, because they hold it in their hand.”

It’s easy to dismiss the sentimentality around ‘page sniffing’ and holding a real magazine in your hands, especially given the overall decline of magazines. But as Barbalich pointed out, there’s something very special for children about holding the magazine, taking it places and collecting it. “And what parent doesn’t want to see their child happily engaged in reading something?” she asked.

Perhaps surprisingly, there’s a digital version of the magazine which Campbell said is often taken up by schools on an education license. But consumer subscribers make use of this too; sometimes grandparents or parents will read the digital version in order to spark conversations with the children.

But the majority of the readership and audience growth focus is on the print magazine. “One of the critical points of the value proposition is that it’s in print, and it’s not screen time,” Campbell said, emphasizing that print will be the center of their growth strategies for a long time.

Real investment in marketing

When you can’t rely on digital growth and readership, marketing strategies take on a whole new level of importance. “PR and brand campaigns have been a big focus, and we really have raised a lot of awareness through that and are seeing a significant difference,” said Campbell, of their recent marketing push. “We’re evolving our paid-for marketing, and we’ve made a real breakthrough on influencer-led marketing on social, and when we’re doing that at the same time as brand campaigns that have real cut-through appeal and real PR activity around that as well, then we’re covering off all the basics on all the other direct response channels.”

Product marketing is something Campbell believes other publishers with print products are lacking. “I think there’s a lot of brands out there at the moment that are under-published, and lots of places where people have been too accepting of decline,” he theorized. “[The decline] is undoubtedly structural – the print magazine isn’t going to have a U-turn and go up on exponential growth. But actually, I think there are a lot of places where people have been too accepting of brand decline, and there’s a lot more that you can do about it.”

Future plc – owners of The Week Junior brand since 2021 – have a range of print titles, from women’s lifestyle magazine Marie Claire to property and garden magazine Country Life, and news weekly The Week. Thanks to these strong surrounding subscriber-driven brands, Campbell noted that the publisher has nurtured “an internal marketing culture that is open to spending money on and trying new things, and that tends to turn up some good results. We’ve made a number of breakthroughs in different places this year that’s really additive to the business.”

These include big PR wins and endorsements from celebrities and public figures like Drew Barrymore and Jenna Bush Hager, with more in the works for the rest of the year.

That’s not to say The Week Junior can’t do any content marketing. The publication is often approached for perspectives on how to speak to children about difficult world events, and has resources on its website, social channels and newsletter around events like the 2024 Election.

Although 2024 marketing performance has been “phenomenal” according to Campbell, it’s ultimately the product’s brilliance that keeps subscribers. 

Tackling rising costs

Print products have been hit particularly hard by rising material and postage costs over the past five or so years, and The Week Junior has felt the impact of these. In the US particularly, the number of printers has contracted, so the magazine is now printed in fewer places than when they launched in 2020.

However, Campbell pointed out that because they charge proper money for subscriptions and copies, and have a good margin on them, rising costs can be managed in the right way over the longer term.

The magazine also has a growing advertising revenue stream, one that was cited as being a 6-figure business by AdWeek last year. Campbell noted that although there is a lot of opportunity for further growth in advertising, the business is still subscriptions-led, with over 90% of their revenue coming from subscriptions. “I think there are ways in which we can diversify that mix a little bit, but it definitely isn’t something that causes me any anxiety,” he explained.

Given the firm commitment to pricing, a bit of back-of-the-napkin math suggests that with north of 100,000 subscribers paying $49 every six months, the business is bringing in over $10 million annually from magazine subscriptions. 

Opportunities and priorities

For The Week Junior US, the simple priority for now is selling more print subscriptions. “The market [in the US] is huge,” Campbell pointed out. “If we were to match anything like the peak penetration of The Week Junior in the UK, we could double or triple our circulation in the US. 

“That’s achievable: it will take money, and a consistent investment and commitment to it, but I do really believe in the product and the brand.”

From an editorial perspective, Barbalich sees the relentless and divisive nature of the news as being a key opportunity to help the publication grow. “Parents want their children to understand what’s happening in the world, and they don’t necessarily want them – in the elementary and middle grades anyway – to get their information from adult sources,” she explained. “So they trust us to provide the information in an accurate, unbiased, age-appropriate way. We’ve earned their trust over the last 4.5 years since we launched, and we work hard every week to keep it.”

Campbell also sees opportunities in events – which the UK team have been testing out with their own Book Awards and Book Festival – but there are no firm plans yet. School partnerships, sponsorship, advertising and partnerships all have room to grow and develop, yet keeping the print magazine at its heart.

Why print works for TWJ

For most publishers, a healthy mix of revenue streams is essential to building a sustainable, resilient business. But The Week Junior proves that in certain niches, print can thrive as the primary – or even sole – product.

There are two key takeaways from Campbell and Barbalich as to why this works for the brand. Firstly, it has to have a solid marketing strategy. There’s room for experimenting with newer marketing techniques, but with limited content marketing opportunities, getting the magazine in the hands of potential readers is the top priority.

Secondly, the magazine itself has to be consistently brilliant. That means navigating difficult topics with sensitivity and balance, as well as making it fun and engaging for their young audience. Having a subscriber offer which gives parents six risk-free issues demonstrates the confidence The Week Junior has in this. Its growing subscriber numbers show there is most definitely still demand for print products, and that a publishing business can thrive with print at its heart. 

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