Story House Egmont reveals its new PAW Patrol kids’ magazine, PAW Patrol Extra

Story House Egmont has launched its newest preschool magazine, teaming up with Spin Master Entertainment to introduce PAW Patrol Extra, a new monthly title designed to ‘satisfy the incredible demand’ for PAW Patrol content.

The new launch marks the second PAW Patrol licensed title in the Story House Egmont portfolio and follows the successful launch of the PAW Patrol flagship magazine some five years ago. Half a decade on, and Egmont still reports “incredible demand” for the UK’s leading preschool magazine.

Last year, amid what is recognised as a challenging year for the children’s magazines market, the flagship PAW Patrol title sold 880,000 copies and delivered £4 million in RSV. Out of a 17-issue publishing schedule, 2020 saw three issues selling over 63,000 copies and generating close to £1 million in RSV on those issues alone.

The new PAW Patrol Extra has now been billed as ‘the perfect complimentary purchase for PAW Patrol fans’, focusing on specific characters, themes and seasonality, and creating new and captivating content. The branded covermounts are closely linked with the editorial and will reflect important core themes from PAW Patrol TV episodes like empathy and friendship.

The first issue of PAW Patrol Extra focuses on Marshall – the fan favourite fire-fighter pup. From the firehouse to his fire truck, Marshall is a Dalmatian who is all action, which is exactly what readers will find in the first issue of PAW Patrol Extra. As well as stories, stickers, games and posters, issue number one is complimented by four Marshall-themed gifts.

Kiran Vara, publisher of PAW Patrol Extra magazine, said: “We’re thrilled to be celebrating the launch of PAW Patrol Extra magazine. In such a highly competitive market, the sustained growth and popularity of the flagship magazine is a testament to the strength of this incredible evergreen brand and we’re so excited to be giving fans even more action-packed fun with the launch of PAW Patrol Extra.”

Popular preschool property Tractor Ted rolls into Signature Publishing’s Adventures With partnership

Tractor Ted, the popular YouTube preschool series, is rolling into the magazine aisles from next month, becoming the focus of the latest Adventures With magazine from Signature Publishing.

Adventures With Tractor Ted will feature the popular little green tractor that continues to gain momentum in the preschool space with its hit series centered on exploring the farm, teaching children about animals, the country, nature, seasons, food, and farm machinery.

Tractor Ted boasts its own YouTube channel, toy range, books and live appearances, and has become a hit with children across the UK with famous fans including Clare Balding and Ben Fogle.

The Adventures With Tractor Ted magazine will bring the series’ farming fun and discovery to its pages with stories, cooking, puzzles, colouring activities, crafts, facts, and more. The magazine supports Hungry Little Minds, the Department for Education’s drive to improve the communication, literacy and language skills of preschool children, while all activities in the magazine are created to support and develop early years learning.

The issue will also come with an interactive sticker sheet and a toy fruit play-set.

“We are big fans of Tractor Ted, so we’re so excited to be publishing a magazine that’s dedicated to him,” said Amanda Clifford, Signature Publishing’s editorial director. “It’s got everything that young children love – funny stories, loads and loads to do, things to make, cute animals and lots of awesome tractors and farm machines. In the words of Tractor Ted, the magazine is Teducational and totally Tedtastic.”

Alexandra Heard, Tractor Ted’s co-founder and creative director, added: “Producing a dedicated Tractor Ted magazine is crazily exciting and we just love the opportunities that this will bring. The whole ethos of Tractor Ted is to introduce young children to real life farming in a fun, gentle and engaging way.

“We couldn’t have asked for better than to team up with Signature Publishing. To say that we’re totally thrilled would be an understatement – dare we say that we’re like pigs in clover?!”

Signature Publishing’s Adventures With is a preschool focused title with changing themes each month. Adventure With Tractor Ted is on sale from June 10th.

Story House Egmont acquires magazine and activity book rights to pre-school hit CoComelon

Story House Egmont – formerly Egmont Magazines – has acquired the magazine rights to the hit pre-school property CoComelon, spanning all territories in the group for magazines, as well as colouring and activity books across EEA regions.

The move follows what has been a highly successful run for CoComelon, which is not only the current number one children’s channel on YouTube, but was 2020#s most popular show on Netflix. On YouTube alone, the series garners 3.5 billion views per month, and is adding to its 107 million subscribers every day.

CoComelon is the latest addition to Story House Egmont’s pre-school portfolio, which currently includes Thomas & Friends, Milkshake!, Ryan’s World, PAW Patrol, and more. Story House Egmont has itself seen vast success in the pre-school sector, having seen a ten per cent growth in RSV year on year.

The deal was signed by Story House Egmont Publishing Director, Laura Adnitt and includes all territories in the group for magazines, as well as Colouring & Activity book formats for EEA territories.

Adnitt said: “As a parent, I know first-hand the great appeal and value of CoComelon. As a publisher, I see the huge potential to share this blissful brand in a printed format with thousands of young families across our publishing network. CoComelon, with its mind-blowing reach and ‘of the moment’ relevance, is a wonderful addition to our publishing portfolio, where we aspire to offer something for every child. We are incredibly excited by this acquisition and can’t wait to get started on our product development with Moonbug.”

Katie Wilkinson, publishing manager at The Point.1888, said: “When Story House Egmont takes on a new brand, it fully commits to the partnership and to building the brand. The scale of CoComelon is like nothing we have seen in preschool and we cannot wait to see what this new partnership will deliver to its fans.”

Masha and the Bear scores new magazine and comic books deal with Panini across Italy

New Masha and the Bear magazines and comic books are about to land at kiosks across Italy, thanks to a new partnership between Maurizio Distefano Licensing – the licensing agent for Masha and the Bear in Italy – and Panini.

Under the partnership, Panini will launch a new monthly, official Masha and the Bear magazine and series of comic books. The magazine is available at retailers now while the comics will launch on April 29th.

The Panini publications are all carefully designed to encourage reading among kids and will include simple and fun activities, stories, colouring-in pages and gifts. They can be found in bookstores, in kiosks and on the www.panini.it website.

The animated series Masha and the Bear is now a children’s classic, enjoying incredibly high levels of awareness. According to Parrot Analytics, a leading TV analytics company, the animated series was among the top five most in-demand kids’ shows in the world in January 2021.

It is also ranked third among the top favourite kids’ entertainment brands in Europe and MEA among children from 0 to six (source: Kidz Global, Jan 2021 edition).

Masha and the Bear airs daily on Rai YoYo. Its many regular showings have been a key factor in the enormous success of the series since its arrival in Italy. The episodes are also available on the Rai app Rai Play.

“This partnership between a leading Italian publisher of children’s magazines, books and comics and one of the most popular children’s series, both in the world and in Italy, is guaranteed to be successful,” says Maurizio Distefano, president of Maurizio Distefano Licensing. “Panini has developed some highly attractive products for Masha and the Bear, bringing together high-quality educational content and great fun! This magazine and these comics are perfect for their young target audience.”

Signature Publishing trials plastic-free packaging for Transformers Rescue Bots magazine this month

Signature Publishing Ltd is trialling its first plastic-free packaging for the collectable toy figurines it includes with a number of its most popular children’s magazine titles.

In the firm’s mission to ‘lead the way in the children’s magazine aisle,’ Signature Publishing has introduced the trial concept to its latest issue of the Transformers Rescue Bots Academy magazine, packaging its robot figurine in a plastic-free and recyclable window box.

“As a dynamic independent specialist Children’s publishing company, we are perfectly placed to react quickly to develop and implement highly creative solutions and deliver to market,” said Holly Tarrant, senior publishing manager.

“With the majority of our products sold in-store, captivating packaging that shows off the product is key, and therefore it’s been very rewarding to meet the challenge we’ve set ourselves to rethink the traditional blister packs.

“This plastic-free window box has been developed to hold the product safely and securely while still clearly displaying the quality figurine inside.”

Signature Publishing has outlined its renewed focus on sustainable packaging and in addition to the trial of the new packagign concept, it has confirmed that all packaging it produces is now recyclable, while PCW recycled content is being introduced where possible.

Transformers Rescue Bots Academy magazine is a monthly magazine priced at £4.49. The latest issue will be available nationwide from April 16th.

Waitrose bans kids’ magazines with ‘pointless plastic’ free toys in fight against pollution

Waitrose has confirmed that it will no longer sell children’s magazines with plastic disposable toys in a move to help combat the issue of pollution and plastic waste.

The retailer’s decision was inspired by a campaign launched by the ten year old Skye from Gwynedd, who has made it a mission to persuade publishers to stop giving away the disposable toys in magazines.

Waitrose has backed the cause, stating that the plastic toys, often used as incentives for children and parents to purchase the magazine, have a short lifespan and cannot easily be recycled. Over the next eight weeks, it will be removing magazines containing the free toys from its shelves.

The grocer is urging publishers to replace the ‘pointless plastic’ with sustainable alternatives and the ban will not include educational or reusable craft items which are designed to be used multiple times, such as colouring pens and pencils, and collectable models.

Speaking with the BBC, ten year old Skye – who’s campaign inspired the move – said: “I’m really pleased so many people have agreed with me and supported my petition – I want to thank everyone who has signed and shared my campaign to ban plastics from comics and magazines.

“Thank you to Waitrose for agreeing with us and no longer selling the unwanted plastic tat.

“I hope all retailers can do the same and then the publishers will realise this is not acceptable anymore. We really like the magazines – we just don’t want or need the plastic packaging or the cheap plastic toys.”

Marija Rompani, partner and director of sustainability and ethics at Waitrose, said: “While we know these magazines are popular with children, some of the unnecessary plastic attached to them has become really excessive.

“Many in the younger generation really care about the planet and are the ones inheriting the problem of plastic pollution. We urge publishers to find alternatives, and other retailers to follow our lead in ending the pointless plastic that comes with children’s magazines.”

The retailer has written to magazine distributors giving them eight weeks’ notice of the policy, asking for alternatives to plastic toys and warning that they will not sell copies which contain the disposable items.

Campaigners for better sustainability measures within the children’s entertainment space has acknowledged the impact the decision may have on some publishers, but state that this is a ‘necessary step in tackling the issue of plastic waste.’

Trudi Bishop, a campaigner and columnist for ToyNews, said: “All publishers need to stop and believe in their content and not rely on cheap, nasty plastic marketing toys to sell what are great magazines.”

Signature Publishing debuts Adventures With kids’ magazine with Masha and the Bear partnership

Signature Publishing is to launch a new monthly magazine for children called Adventures With, a changing theme magazine for pre-schoolers that will partner up with some of the biggest names in the entertainment sector.

Marking the debut of the new title, Signature Publishing has partnered with Animaccord to brings its flagship property, Masha and the Bear to print as it looks to support early years learning through stories, puzzles, colouring, and other activities. On top of this, each issue will come with a bespoke cover-mount.

Masha and the Bear currently ranks number five in the list of most in-demand children’s shows worldwide as well as number three among top favourite kids’ entertainment brands in Europe and MEA. On YouTube, the series reached over 84 billion total views and 130 million followers as well as received 40 YouTube Play Buttons including five Diamond Buttons (YouTube Creator Awards).

In 2019, the cartoon was included in Guinness World Records book as the most-watched animated video on YouTube, with the episode “Recipe for Disaster” that today counts over 4.4 billion views.

“Masha and The Bear is a brilliant brand to begin our Adventures With magazines,” said Amanda Clifford, Signature Publishing’s editorial director. “The characters and stories are endearing and funny with a unique appeal to young children and it’s been an absolute pleasure to work with it.

“We have many more exciting brands that we’re going to be taking Adventures With and each one is sure to be a magazine that children will love and treasure.”

Adventures With is a monthly magazine launching March 31st 2021 priced at £4.99. The first issue, dedicated to Masha and The Bear, will come with a Masha and The Bear secret box set and will be available nationwide at all good supermarkets and newsagents.

Egmont Magazines rounds-off Thomas and Friends 75th anniversary year with special collector’s edition

Egmont Magazines is celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Thomas & Friends brand with the release of a limited edition gift pack of its popular, officially licensed magazine.

In issue number 791 of Thomas & Friends, the titular hero takes a special trip to the capital, while the issue itself will come accompanied by a seven-piece play-set that includes Thomas, Percy and a carriage. Readers can explore London alongside Thomas with the London Eye, bus, phone box and Fat Controller figurines also included in the play-set.

Meanwhile. there are over 40 stickers, a reward chart, posters, puzzles and more, all designed to help develop early years skills.

Egmont has released three special editions of Thomas & Friends magazine this year. Thomas fans delighted in receiving an official mini train and story book in issue #781, and this year’s summer special was a treat for young Thomas fans and collectors alike, with a special anniversary train set accompanying the magazine.

An impressive 32 years after launch, Thomas & Friends magazine remains a top 20 title in the children’s market and is the oldest single character magazine in the UK.

Kiran Vara, publisher of Thomas & Friends magazine, said: “We’ve loved celebrating with Thomas and Mattel through all three anniversary issues of this evergreen magazine but Thomas’ trip to London is really something special.

“We know that Thomas fans will love exploring the city with Thomas and enjoy all the exciting activities inside the magazine.”

Egmont Magazines launches new Power Rangers title based on new Beast Morphers series

Egmont Magazines is expanding its licensed primary boys’ portfolio with the launch of Power Rangers magazine, based on the new Beast Morphers series.

The new magazine launched on October 21st making its debut with exclusive Power Rangers comic strips, created by Egmont, as well as inside info on the rangers and their skills. Each issue will come with puzzles, posters, and competitions, as well as come accompanied by a Power Rangers gift developed in collaboration with Hasbro.

Egmont’s Kiran Vara, said: “We know that kids and parents alike love Power Rangers, and we’re thrilled to be able to bring the larger-than-life feel of the brand to print.

“The magazine’s content really is bursting with the Power Rangers’ trademark feel-good adventure and humour, and we know that our readers will love feeling like one of the team with the help of the Power Rangers branded gift on every issue.”

Egmont launches new LEGO Explorer monthly magazine and enters subscription market

Egmont Magazines is launching a new LEGO Explorer magazine, a monthly publication designed ‘to build curious minds’ and inspire readers to design their own LEGO models and ‘unleash their creativity.’

The magazine has been developed by Egmont Publishing with the support of official LEGO designers and aims to combine the creativity central to the LEGO brand with Egmont’s experience in magazine content. The new title will be focused on learning, discovery and creativity.

The LEGO Explorer magazine will have a STEAM focus, encouraging young readers to go on a journey through the worlds of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths, as well as teaching them new LEGO skills with inside info from LEGO designers themselves.

Each issue will also offer readers innovative tips and tricks to make the most of their LEGO collection, as well as a collectable LEGO toy. The first issue of LEGO Explorer is dedicated to Marvellous Machines and explores the world of robots and artificial intelligence.

The magazine will be hitting newsstands from October 21st, however, Egmont will also be entering the subscriptions market with subs already available online.

Laura Adnitt, publishing director, said: “We’re sure that LEGO Explorer will be loved by both kids and parents, and the STEAM themes are sure to engage young readers in educational topics alongside their much-loved LEGO bricks.

“We’re delighted to be launching this magazine with a direct to consumer subscription offer. We know that young readers will love collecting all the themed issues, and will revel in building the exclusive LEGO covermounts every month.”