Donald Duck Junior mag for children that don’t read
The prejudice that comics are for people who don’t like to read books gained a new dimension this week with the launch of Donald Duck Junior magazine. NRC quotes Sanoma publisher Suzanne Schouten (Dutch): “The age at which children start with Donald Duck [magazine] went from 6 to 8 years old in the last few years. The magazine turns out to be too difficult for many 6 and 7 year olds. Children read less these days. That’s why we wanted to develop a magazine that is much simpler and with which children learn to read while having fun.”
As daily NRC puts it, Junior has “less text, bigger balloons, and simpler puzzles.” I took a quick look at the magazine in the super market today, and noticed that numbers were spelled with digits, and were emphasized. Also, the text mostly used short words, single or double syllable.
Image: SanomaCrossing.
And the cover image relates to the level of intelligence of the intended reader, I s’pose? :-J
Not to mention those students that would rather read DD than the newspaper.
Me no understand post. Can draw?
Eh?
There’s a very popular comics magazine in the Netherlands called Donald Duck. It’s more than 50 years old and one of the strongest brands in the country. The magazine is aimed at children between approximately 6 and 12, but is also read a lot by older people.
The publisher noticed somehow that the younger members of the target audience were getting too illiterate to understand the pretty pictures, so they launched a new magazine—to be run alongside the old one—that’s dumbed down for 6 and 7 year olds.
Eric, the cover’s one that was used in a presentation about the new magazine, as far as I know they went with a different one for the actual launch.