Retailers are putting their faith in kids’ magazines, with thousands more stores stocking titles like Baby Shark and Hello Kitty.
Data from newspaper and magazine distributor Smiths News has shown several kids’ magazines jumping more than ten ranks in the most-stocked titles chart, and eight new kids’ magazines entering the top 100. This includes Action! Magazine, which broke into the top 50 most-stocked titles despite only having launched in March of this year.
Fun to Learn Peppa Pig, Hello Kitty, Octonauts, Action!, Milkshake, Pikmin Pops Surprise, Girl Talk, Baby Shark, Disney Stars, Pets 2 Collect, and Mega all increased their saturation across independents.
This data does not represent the number of titles sold, but the number of independent stockists, such as specialist magazine sellers or convenience stores, carrying the magazine. Unlike major chains, like supermarkets and bookshops, independent stores generally have smaller ranges of titles, which are hand-picked by the owner or a member of staff. This means that titles being stocked by these stores is a real indication of retailers’ faith in the magazine’s potential popularity.
Being stocked in more stores also represents a significant boost in visibility for these magazines’ IPs, with magazine ranges typically displayed in super-visible areas of small stores near the checkout to maximise on impulse purchases.
Mark Dudden, owner of Albany Road Post Office in Cardiff, told MediaCat that his store stocks a wide range of kids’ magazines, including educational titles, IP-based titles, and other traditional kids’ magazines like comics.
‘We sell them all,’ he said. ‘Parents go for the more educational titles, but the IPs really encourage kids to go for them. Kids loving a magazine is a big influence, but ultimately the parent is the one paying for it.’
Some titles that performed particularly well were titles that combined educational elements with a distinctive IP, like Octonauts and Fun to Learn Peppa Pig. However, covermounted gifts remain the strongest factor influencing the popularity of magazines, outstripping recognisable IPs.
Kids’ magazines are typically weekly or fortnightly, and cost around £5 for a regular issue and more for bumper issues. This means that a single loyal customer can be worth as much as £300 a year for just the magazine, in addition to cementing a child’s attachment to the IP, providing a regular reminder of the brand in the store and the home, and boosting sales of other products alongside the magazine.
Dudden confirmed that the magazines are successful in advertising other products from the same IP. He said that his store often sees parents purchasing a Pokémon magazine along with a pack of Pokémon cards, or Spongebob Squarepants magazine along with small toys.
Main image by Gabriel Vasiliu on Unsplash