Happy First Birthday Scoop Magazine! Here's a fab interview with Clementine Macmillan Scott, Founder and Editor of this wonderful mag for inquisitive and imaginative kids.

Scoop Birthday issue with a fantastic cover from awesome artist David Roberts

If there's one thing we've always been keen to champion on the blog, it's the rise and rise of fantastic and interesting print magazines for kids that ditch all that 'rubbish plastic free gift' stuff, or move away from movie or TV franchises to stand out on their own and do something different and unique.

"Scoop" is a brilliant magazine for kids, and way back in the mists of time we took a look at the very first issue. We're happy to report that they've just celebrated their first birthday, going from strength to strength and establishing a really superb magazine.

Riddle me this. Get the inside Scoop on this brilliant magazine.

Over the course of their first year in print, Scoop have continued to deliver a creative mix of amazing stories, brilliant facts and engaging articles. It's awesome news to see that they're making a success of things, so we thought we'd put some tricky questions to Clementine about the magazine, and their past, present and future plans.

Clever stuff for code-cracking kids. Just an example of the sort of content that goes into this vibrant magazine.

Starting off with three questions from me...

Q1: Many congratulations on your first birthday! We have thoroughly enjoyed Scoop Magazine, would you like to tell our readers a little bit about yourself and your magazine?


Yes, of course! I launched Scoop in September last year after doing about a year of research. Since coming across an old copy of a now out of print publication called The Children’s Newspaper, I had been convinced that the generation of children today should have something similar, a paper or magazine that didn’t patronise them or cover itself in glitter and plastic. Having never worked on or launched a magazine before I had a lot of research to do. I had been working as a coordinator of literary festivals so I was used to bringing together projects and people and really that is what I love, combined with books of course.

Q2: We’re so pleased to hear that print books are actually clawing back sales away from digital books and content. Do you feel that the same thing is happening in the world of periodicals and children’s magazines too?


According to recent research 7.1 million adults now buy their child/children a magazine or newspaper every month. Even though we think that the screen and digital news are taking over, the printed format is still incredibly popular as a way to learn and be entertained. Everywhere they turn, children are inundated with information and having magazines and papers that they and their parents can trust and share is becoming increasingly valued. The steep rise of The Week Junior has shown this. Scoop is part of a growing number of fantastic independent magazines. A trend that is not just being seen in the children’s market but of course adults are investing in printed magazines that have been lovingly crafted and curated.
Q3: What has been the most valuable experience or “lesson learned” over the past year of producing Scoop?

That’s a great question and one ask myself every day. Every day the answer changes! I do think that if you want to put something out in the world, it’s very simple but you have to start out by knowing what you audience wants and working as hard as you possibly can to deliver that. We question ourselves all the time and we make mistakes but we also have great triumphs and receive the most amazing fan mail. Sorry, that’s not really an answer! I think if I was starting again I would have done more focused market research to find out exactly who and where are audience was so that we could reach them a little bit more swiftly than did when we launched.