The Children's Newspaper facts for kids
The Children's Newspaper was a special newspaper made for young people, mostly those under 13 years old. It was started by Arthur Mee in 1919 and was published by a company called Amalgamated Press (later Fleetway Publications). This newspaper was printed every week for a very long time, with 2,397 issues in total! It finally joined with another magazine called Look and Learn in 1965.
Contents
The Start of a Newspaper for Kids
Before The Children's Newspaper began, Arthur Mee had already created a very popular book series called The Children's Encyclopædia. This encyclopedia was released in parts from 1908 to 1910. It was so successful that they quickly made a new version.
In 1910, this new encyclopedia started including a small extra section called The Little Paper. This section had news stories that kids would find interesting. Arthur Mee then took this idea and made it much bigger. He created a whole newspaper just for children.
When The Children's Newspaper First Appeared
The Children's Newspaper first came out on March 22, 1919. It had 12 pages and was about the size of a tabloid newspaper. When it first launched, it cost 1½d (one and a half old pennies).
The newspaper's motto was "The Story of the World Today for the Men and Women of Tomorrow." This showed Arthur Mee's strong beliefs. He thought that teaching children was the best way to help them live better and more creative lives. He wanted his encyclopedia to teach kids about history and geography. For The Children's Newspaper, his goal was to keep young readers updated on the latest world news and new discoveries in science.
How Popular Was It?
At its most popular, The Children's Newspaper sold an amazing 500,000 copies every single week! That's half a million newspapers going out to kids across the country.
After Arthur Mee passed away in 1943, Hugo Tyerman became the new editor. However, after the Second World War, sales started to drop. Other new magazines and comics like Eagle, Junior Mirror, and Junior Express became popular.
Changes Over Time
It wasn't until the mid-1950s that The Children's Newspaper started to change and become more modern. They began to add articles about television and sports. They even included interviews with famous sports stars to try and attract more readers.
In January 1962, the company that published the newspaper, Fleetway Publications, launched a new educational weekly called Look and Learn. The Children's Newspaper was printed in black and white, and it looked a bit old-fashioned compared to the new, colorful magazines. Even though they tried to get older kids interested by adding a column for girls and a 'Pop Spot' with photos of popular singers, sales kept going down.
The Children's Newspaper printed its last issue on May 1, 1965, after 2,397 issues.
Where Is It Now?
In November 2004, a company called Look and Learn Magazine Ltd. bought the rights to The Children's Newspaper. They started putting old issues online in April 2007. This means you can now view or download many of the old newspapers from their website!
