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Mark Levine: Profile of a PioneerMark Levine is best known for publishing a monthly children's magazine that is sold by subscription; its abundant artwork, photography, and fine production give it a consumer look and feel. Yet the content of KIDS DISCOVER is more like a nonfiction book: Each issue focuses on a single target of children's curiosity with topics ranging from microbes to Marco Polo. Indeed, many of Levine's successes in publishing have been marked by a talent for combining seemingly unlike elements into a unique brew. From 1978 until 1986, when he sold AMERICAN BABY magazine, he transformed that publication--which his father's company had printed for distribution with diaper service--from a single title into a multimedia entity that reached new and expectant mothers through 10 different products, including a cable TV show. And though he then stayed on for a few years as a group publisher with its buyer, Cahners, Levine--who is credited in the industry as a pioneer of integrated marketing--ultimately decided to return to entrepreneurial publishing with a product that would allow him to remove himself from the world of advertising. How is it that KIDS DISCOVER, with its sumptuous paper and wall-to-wall color artwork, has existed since its start, in 1991, without ads? "The only way to do it is to reach a certain threshold of subscribers," says its publisher and chairman, who will be inducted into AEP's Hall of Fame this fall. KIDS DISCOVER, he says matter of factly, has 425,000 paid subscribers. And while it was business practicality that led Levine to target the magazine to a wide range of ages, KIDS DISCOVER is framed in a way that works for diverse readers: Parents read the magazine with the younger ones, who stay interested from page to page because of the frequent visuals, Levine says. "Coming from the consumer magazine arena, we did not have educational theory or bias to help or to hinder our approach," he explains. "We probably did some things that other publishers more focused on the education world might not have done--such as addressing a wider age range of readers." Yet KIDS DISCOVER became a surprise favorite among teachers--and the education market, an added boon. "Some things that weren't planned originally just evolved from the high quality and single-subject focus," Levine says. "At first, we weren't savvy about the education market--and within that, the supplementals market. We learned after the first year that teachers who subscribed for their families fell in love with KIDS DISCOVER and wanted to use issues in the classroom to supplement unit studies. And as we developed more and more subjects that appealed to teachers, we got more and more interest from schools. Now there is an entire segment of our business that offers back-listed issues as supplemental texts." Kids, it turns out, aren't the only ones who love to delve into information about the world around them. Questions, ideas, or in need of more information? Please contact Stacey Pusey at 302-295-8349. |
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