At just two-and-a-half years of age, there’s no way Peta Bianchi-Howden will miss out on what’s happening in the world as her mum and dad launch a national newspaper for kids this year in Woodford.
Media industry stalwarts and ex-Sydney Morning Herald staffers, journalist Saffron Howden and graphic designer Remi Bianchi, will bring Australia’s first national weekly newspaper for kids to life in April.
From their bush base, the dynamic duo have been putting together the final touches of the quality production, which features a child-friendly approach to the news from top writers in Australia and overseas, as well as movie, gaming and book reviews written by children. The national paper has already launched online, with its first print run of 5000 copies scheduled for just after Anzac Day.
“I literally took a day’s rest [in December last year] after leaving the Herald,” Ms Howden, 36, said. “It had been brewing for a while.”
“I had heard they have three daily kids papers in France and between 150,000 subscribers. When the Paris attacks happened, all the kids newspapers were in the news again, and I guess it inspired me to take the leap and do this.
“Everyone was talking about what a wonderful job they [the kids’ papers] had done explaining something so scary and life-changing, in a way that kids could understand it and almost allay their fears. And they all got a lot of praise for that from the adult press, as I’m now calling it,” she said laughing.
Ms Howden said the response had been “phenomenal” with dozens of schools already signing on for multiple subscriptions and partners offering to sponsor it. In the paper's display edition, there are articles on everything from Syrian children who can't go to school, to Constable Koala bear being rescued during the WA bushfires and a book review written by a child.
“Kids can read the news and their parents and teachers don’t have to worry about them coming across stories about murders and pedophilia,” she said.
There are a number of other papers internationally that have also had success in the kids’ newspaper market, she said, like UK’s First News.
First News, which also helped inspire the Mountains-based paper, has two million readers a week, according to its website.
“The interest [in Crinkling] has been phenomenal. It has already got to the point with the subscriptions for the website that it’s bigger than a family business.
“The thing is people believe so much in the product they want to see it work. We’ve got a lot of people rallying around. For the display edition all these incredible journalists and photographers helped out.”
One example is former Herald Middle East correspondent Ruth Pollard who contributed an article about children in war-torn Syria.
“I used all the news judgement I’ve been using for the last 16 years of my life as a journalist and started thinking about some of those serious subjects in a kid-friendly way. Bearing in mind we’ve only been around for a few weeks and without going out to seek it, we’ve had a huge response from schools. The main response we’ve had is ‘Why didn’t I think of it?’”
A trademark challenge meant Mr Bianchi’s original title of Inkling has been adjusted to Crinkling. But Ms Howden wasn’t too fussed by the last minute hiccup.
“I love the sound crinkling connotes,” the founding editor said. “The rustling of newspaper around the breakfast table is becoming an increasingly foreign sound, but Crinkling News is bringing it back,” she added.
As for Peta eventually stepping into her editor Mum’s shoes, Ms Howden is hopeful.
“I hope she writes for us, but it’s got to be fair. Of course it would be great to pass the business along to her one day, but, who knows, she might be totally uninterested in it. At the moment all she is interested in is skateboards.”
The paper’s target market is 7-14 year-olds. Ms Howden said she, like others working in the market, had discovered “there's a children's angle to every story”. Crinkling also has a website, Facebook and Twitter site. The self-funded venture will be subscriber and sponsorship-based.
Already children have given the paper’s web version the thumbs up, with Cath A writing: “What a well written article” and Keira D commenting on a body image story that she would “remember to stop comparing myself to girls in magazines”.
