varietyjr

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Responding to the growing children’s entertainment business, Hollywood trade magazine Variety this month launched its first new publication in more than 60 years Variety Junior.

The new magazine is targeted mainly at producers and distributors of children’s entertainment. Casting directors appear to be a primary audience, judging from the page upon page of head shots of child actors inserted as paid advertisements by talent agencies.

“The kids sector of entertainment is potentially the fastest growing of all entertainment markets,” said Charlie Koones, Variety Junior’s publisher. “There’s money to be made there.”

Starting the bi-monthly “is a smart, logical business extension for us,” said Koones.

While Koones would not reveal the cost to launch the new publication, he said no new editorial employees were hired to write for Variety Junior. Most of Variety’s editorial employees will be reporting for the new publication, which released its first issue in September but will not launch its second until January. After that, a new issue will be released every two months.

The tabloid-sized magazine, which has a $2.95 cover price, features articles about at-home schooling for child actors and the cut-throat competition among children’s cable networks like Nickelodeon and the Cartoon Network. It contains sections on licensing, multimedia, feature films and music.

“Variety did a lot of animation special issues, but they didn’t cover the business in-depth,” said Patricia Saperstein, Variety Junior’s editor. “(Variety) felt it was a niche that wasn’t completely covered.”

The initial circulation of Variety Junior is 20,000 readers, many of whom are Variety subscribers in the children’s entertainment business. Free copies will also be given to non-subscribers in that industry, and distributed at trade shows. Saperstein said free distribution of the magazine will continue indefinitely, because as a trade publication it is not as reliant on paid subscriptions as consumer magazines. The vast majority of its revenues come from advertising sales.

That wide distribution, said Teresa Valenti, owner of the Beverly Hecht Talent Agency, is what will make the publication valuable for her as an advertiser.

“As an agent, I believe in advertising,” she said. “If it’s going to all the casting directors and producers, it’s worthwhile to me.”

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