By: Lucia Moses
The Toronto Star said it would propel into orbit Thursday
Brand New Planet, a stand-alone weekly tabloid newspaper for 9-to-14-year-olds.
Although the
Star has reached out to kids and teens by hiring young columnists and adding news sections, it felt the 'tweenage group in the middle needed a paper they could call their own,
Star Publisher John Honderich said in a statement.
'Tweens are "the hot demographic that advertisers are trying to get their hands on,"
Brand New Planet Editor Susan Grimbly added in an interview with
E&P.
While many papers have stand-alone tab papers for teens and in-paper sections for kids, the
Planet is unusual in that it's a stand-alone product for 'tweens, said Sandy Woodcock, manager of youth readership programs at the Newspaper Association of America Foundation in Vienna, Va.
Two years in development, the 16-page
Planet initially will distribute through the
Star, in more than 350,000 copies of the Thursday issue. After four weeks,
Star subscribers can get it delivered free on Thursdays with their daily papers. One hundred thousand copies also will be dropped at libraries, movie theaters, schools, and other popular kid destinations.
Major advertisers who have signed on include the Walt Disney Co. and GlaxoSmithKline PLC, which makes an acne product.
The launch is supported by a print and pop-radio campaign, as well as a chance to win a trip to Florida's Walt Disney World Resort by collecting tokens printed in the
Star and its offshoot.
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