As NYT for Kids is axed, other youth products are finding success
By Aralynn Abare McMane
Across the globe, children are losing some and gaining some when it comes to news products tailored for them. Here are some developments:
- The 31 August edition of The New York Times (NYT) will carry the last monthly print-only section for children, its media reporter Katie Robertson announced in July.
- California-based Kid Scoop News is expanding the reach of its standalone monthly print product that augments the insert it has sold for 40 years.
- The Week Junior – the US offspring of a UK brand – has become the fastest growing magazine in the United States, reaching more than 100,000 subscribers and increasing audited circulation by 23 percent in the second half of 2024. This places it third among all US magazines, behind only The Atlantic and New York.
- In Norway, a government inducement to encourage children to read in print is prompting new news products for kids.
NYT for Kids a casualty of ‘changing priorities’
What started as a one-off in May 2017 soon became the regular, print-only NYT for Kids section, appearing the last Sunday of the month as part of the main paper on large (broadsheet) pages. It contained 10 to 15 stories and distinctive, specially curated art.
Civic leader Sara Fenske Bahat went so far as to help launch a Change.org petition encouraging NYT management to make that initial 2017 one-off section a permanent fixture.
“It’s been a great experience for our family to be reminded that the physical paper is actually something really nice to share,” she told Nieman Lab at the time. Her husband, Roy, was even more emphatic: “It absolutely makes us more likely to subscribe.”
But not enough people have followed through.
Print subscriptions have accounted for a fraction of The Times’ overall circulation for some time. When the section began in 2017, the print subscription level had been holding steady at about 1 million copies for at least three years, according to a Nieman Lab analysis.
At the end of June 2025 The Times had 580,000 print subscribers versus 11.3 million subscribers for digital products alone.
“I was so excited when NYT for Kids launched for families to have something to look forward to at least once a month,” said children’s book author Lara Rice Bergen. “Maybe if they’d made it weekly and more regular, it would have been more successful.”
Jake Silverstein, editor of The New York Times Magazine, has overseen the section from the start. “We have new priorities now that force us to make some tough decisions about where to commit resources and have made the decision to wind down Kids,” Silverstein said.
“In the meantime, @nytkids on Instagram is still operating,” and The Times will seek “new opportunities” to serve children.
The problem with Instagram for kids…
The Instagram account has a solid 84.2K followers, though with mostly under 200 “likes” for any post.
The classic demographics for Instagram would indicate users are not children – nor should they be.
According to Statistica, people between the ages of 18 and 34 accounted for more than 60 percent of users, and Instagram prides itself on tough rules for users under the age 13.
Common Sense Media rates Instagram for ages 15 and older because of the platform’s prevalence of mature content, access to strangers, and data collection.
Fenske Bahat has remained loyal to the end. “We have loved every issue of the Kids section,” she said last week. “While digital can obviously make content come alive in new ways, there’s a lot to be said for the physical paper as a shared household ritual, serving as a starting point for conversation on Sundays, a nice way to have support for conversations about what’s going on in the world.“
The NYT is not abandoning all content that nudges children toward reading in print: in early August, it suggested 10 books for children starting school.
Press associations boost Kid Scoop News
Meanwhile, in the western United States, a model that depends on donors who support literacy is expanding its footprint and increasing its reach.
“Our monthly, stand-alone, Kid Scoop News publication is really taking off,” said Founder and Editor Vicki Whiting. “We now have partnerships with four regional publishers and several more in serious negotiation.”
Founded in 1984, the 28-page monthly is intended mainly for classroom use and contains a variety of activities for children, alongside some news and numerous feature stories designed to explain what they are experiencing.
It also has content in Spanish, partly so immigrant children can help their parents with English at home.
Whiting started Kid Scoop while teaching eight- and nine-year-olds (USA third grade).
“I started Kid Scoop [as a special page] in my local newspaper and watched my students simply sit up straighter in their seats and really take an interest in reading and learning.”The inserts became part of newspapers all over the country, with sales slowing as print circulations declined.
Now, as a stand-alone publication, Kid Scoop News relies on a non-profit model: philanthropic donations support the cost to deliver papers free to students in class.
“A publisher of a new community newspaper in Southeast Texas will be distributing to 30,000 students this fall,” explains Whiting. “He is raising the money as well as doing the printing and distribution.
“In Louisiana, a publisher prints and distributes about 30,000 copies a month as well.”
Nebraska was the first press association to become involved, in 2020. “We are now starting our fifth school year in which we provide copies of a 24-page, full-colour Kid Scoop News publication to 12,000 students in grades 3, 4 and 5 (ages 9-11) across Nebraska,” explains Dennis DeRossett, Nebraska Press Association executive director.
A state-level literacy grant sponsored four issues of Kid Scoop News, taking the monthly distribution to 25,000 copies – and there is interest to reach 75,000 students once fully funded, adds DeRossett.
Kid Scoop News is also published by the North Dakota Press Association with distribution by local papers, and is expected to reach 50,000 students this coming school year.
For press associations, Kid Scoop News offers a way to get children introduced to newspapers early in life. It serves as “an avenue for reaching out to organisations that want to support literacy, while at the same time raising awareness about the value of newspapers,” explains Cecile Wehrman, who heads the North Dakota Press Association.
“We print the masts/flags [logos] of all of the newspapers in a border beneath the Kid Scoop content each month, so it’s also making students and parents aware they have a local newspaper.”
How Norway boosts reading in print for children
The jury is still out on which type of reading platform – screen or paper – benefits children more.
Studies find a mix of results, as did the latest mega analysis of reading comprehension studies from between 2000 and 2022, which found “no significant difference between the effect of digital reading and paper reading.”
However, a recent study from the United Kingdom, which recorded brain reaction among 59 children (average age 10.88 years old) found “deeper semantic encoding for print than digital texts.”
Those researchers argue that “we should not yet throw away printed books,” as they see a need for a mix of platforms in school: “It may be that classroom practices should strategically match reading strategies and mediums to task, such that printed media are employed when deeper processing is required while digital access to text is utilised for other needs.”
They cited “rapid access to information” as one such need filled by digital information.
Norway has sided with the print advocates.
“In Norway, the government has just granted 1 billion kroner (€84 million) towards getting kids to read print again,” reports Mari Midstigen, editor-in-chief of the weekly Aftenposten Junior, which goes to 150,000 children mainly in classrooms each week.
“They have realised that the digitalisation has led to poorer reading results and reading engagement,” adds Midstigen.
She says the move will give a boost for classroom use of that edition and prompt her company’s expansion into more monthly magazines on the model of its existing title Aftenposten Junior Science (Aftenposten Vitenskap).
“So to us, print is still very much alive, and has gotten a revival,” assures Midstigen.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr Aralynn McMane is executive director of the France-based nonprofit Global Youth & News Media and coordinator of its Children’s News Europe group. She is the author of the upcoming report News Media & Media Literacy – How newsrooms help classrooms navigate today’s information swamp.
