Mr. Magazine

“I’m an incredibly strong believer in print. And I’m in no way anti-digital or anti-screen. What we try to obsess on is what are all the modalities that one can put into action to create an experience for a kid. And I do believe in puzzling. There are things that you do on paper and in print, ways you process that can be unique from digital. And that’s really important to have in the spectrum of experiences.” Kent Johnson…

“But for us it’s never about bells and whistles of tech or print. It’s about how do you use the capabilities of the technology for the experience that you’re trying to create for the kids. And print is incredible. It’s in the backseat of the car; you can take it with you. You can write in it, share it; it’s batteries never run out.” Kent Johnson…

Highlights for Children was founded in 1946 by Garry Cleveland Myers, Ph.D., and Caroline Clark Myers, who just happen to be the current CEO Kent Johnson’s great-grandparents. And even though Kent is a direct descendant of the company’s founders, he initially had no aspirations to work in the family business. But as fate would have it, he officially joined the company in 2005 and continues to be inspired by the mission to help children become their best selves – curious, creative, caring and confident – and motivated by the challenge of carrying that philosophy into new markets around the world.

And speaking of new markets, this Ph.D.-toting physicist partnered with Google recently to create a special edition Highlights|Google magazine as a resource for parents and kids to navigate their digital lives by knowing how to evaluate trustworthy content, protect privacy, and also to deal with the emotional experiences that occur in kids’ online lives. The issue was shared with all of their subscribers as a bonus for being a part of the Highlights world. Creating a kinder, safer world for all is always the goal. Including online.

I spoke with Kent recently and we talked about this latest endeavor with Google. Also about the mission of Highlights in general and how it hasn’t changed since the magazine’s founding in 1946. The care for children hasn’t changed, nor has the concept that some things can make the world a better place, such as Highlights for Children in all its’ many forms.

And now the Mr. Magazine™ exclusive with Kent Johnson, CEO, Highlights for Children.

But first the soundbites:

On whether he was out of his mind to launch a new print magazine in 2023: Are we out of our minds? We are out of our minds. (Laughs) But it has nothing to do with launching brainPPLAY I think, and you taught me this, good magazine launches are not about launching magazines. It’s about thinking through what’s the community you’re serving, where is there a need, what are you trying to achieve with an audience.

On the role of print in this digital age: I’m an incredibly strong believer in print. And I’m in no way anti-digital or anti-screen. What we try to obsess on is what are all the modalities that one can put into action to create an experience for a kid. And I do believe in puzzling. There are things that you do on paper and in print, ways you process that can be unique from digital. And that’s really important to have in the spectrum of experiences.

On how 2023 was for his business: 2023 was hard. We’ve had an interesting journey coming through the pandemic. The pandemic was so disruptive to so much of society, it did create a lot of need for at home learning. And things that would be beneficial for kids. So it actually sort of helped our business grow when the pandemic came.

On what he would hope to say he’d accomplished in 2024: Here are some of the things that we’d like to see. We care about making progress in the way that we interact with our customers. Digital marketing is an area that we have to get better at. So, I would want to say to you that we really understood how to talk to our customers better and reach them better. We have a number of different ideas. It’s not just about throwing more money to Google and Meta, it’s about talking to our customers differently.

On whether he’s still trying to implement his great grandparent’s mission today, only using different ways: We might articulate it a little bit differently, but I think that what drives us and drives me is there is a consistency through life, from the mission and the purpose, when they founded that company back in 1946 to today, we have very aspirational goals. My great grandparents had some foundational ideas that seem as important today as they ever have – that children are important, that childhood is important, that children learn best through positive example and play, that they are capable of far more than we often assume. Some of the ways we reach them have changed, we learn more all the time about how to be that positive example. But the essence of our values remains the same.

On news he wanted to share: Last year we got into a conversation with the Google Foundation about their desire to make a difference for children in trying to broker the risks, the challenges, the realities of life on the Internet. We live in a digital world and people need skills. People need to protect themselves, they need to be Internet Awesome, not Internet Naive, not Internet Unsafe.

On being partners with Google, not enemies: I always wondered how Highlights and Google could have a more positive impact together. Maybe that’s different than the others. (Laughs) We are a content company; we are a publisher, but we’re a kid company. So we have to think about things through that lens.

On whether children are better off today than they were five years ago: My opinion is no, they’re not. I wish it weren’t true. I think income disparity, the negative impacts on mental health and education of the pandemic. Since 2019 to now, we see significant increases in mental health issues, significant challenges around educational issues and school attendance.

On what keeps him up at night: Everything. (Laughs) The pace of change; wanting to have as much success as possible launching preschool curriculum; addressing the cost structures around digital marketing and print production and distribution. I will always talk about purpose and mission, but the economic challenges for the magazine industry, for print, for the U.S. economy, for distribution; the economic challenges are real for us and everyone else in the industry.

And now the lightly edited Mr. Magazine™ interview with Kent Johnson, CEO, Highlights for Children.

Samir Husni: You’re one of the few companies that launched a new magazine in 2023. Are you out of your mind?

Kent Johnson: Are we out of our minds? We are out of our minds. (Laughs) But it has nothing to do with launching brainPlay. I think, and you taught me this, good magazine launches are not about launching magazines. It’s about thinking through what’s the community you’re serving, where is there a need, and what are you trying to achieve with an audience.

So for us, yes we did launch brainPlay as a magazine. Our objective was about serving what we want to cultivate as a special interest across all of our Highlights subscribers. And the tagline for brainPlay is it’s a magazine for puzzle people. So we know that a large fraction of our readers for Highlights love Hidden Pictures; they love some of the brain games; some of the features within Highlights that inspires critical thinking, so puzzling is a significant thing that they like.

We hear the complaint of why is there only one Hidden Picture puzzle? We know that consumers want more. So we wanted to create the special interest add on in a sense. Now it is a standalone magazine; it’s a 6X frequency. But create for those puzzling kids, which frankly we think every kid should be a puzzling kid, our world is in need of children who grow up with the critical thinking, the insight and the innovation skill that we think is developed through a love of puzzling.

So we wanted to serve those kids. And additionally, we wanted to serve them as an extension of Highlights, but we thought if they really could experience broader senses of all the different types of puzzles we had, that it might invite them and their families into our larger puzzling franchise products. And a lot of those are books; some are digital, but many are books that are sold at Target and Walmart and Barnes & Noble.

So we have a large array of ways for kids to experience puzzling and we thought okay, identify yourself as a puzzling kid, experience that every other month as an extension and as a gateway to more puzzling from Highlights or from other companies. So yes, we launched a magazine, but we don’t think we’re out of our minds to believe that our world would be a better place if more puzzling kids got to exercise that puzzling itch.

Samir Husni: What’s the role of print in this digital age?

Kent Johnson: I’m an incredibly strong believer in print. And I’m in no way anti-digital or anti-screen. What we try to obsess on is what are all the modalities that one can put into action to create an experience for a kid. And I do believe in puzzling. There are things that you do on paper and in print, ways you process that can be unique from digital. And that’s really important to have in the spectrum of experiences.

And I think there’s incredible puzzling online. There are incredible apps; there are incredible digital experiences; we have been investing as well in our highlightskids.com, in different kinds of puzzling experiences; our Hidden Pictures app. And nobody in their magazine can touch the Hidden Object and have it animated fill in, I think that’s pretty cool.

But for us it’s never about bells and whistles of tech or print. It’s about how do you use the capabilities of the technology for the experience that you’re trying to create for the kids. And print is incredible. It’s in the backseat of the car; you can take it with you. You can write in it, share it; it’s batteries never run out.

And I do think away from the distractions that are always present on a digital device, print does allow a little bit of a different puzzling experience. The question is how do we use print as part of our mission to help children become their best selves?

Samir Husni: How was 2023 for your business?

Kent Johnson: 2023 was hard. We’ve had an interesting journey coming through the pandemic. The pandemic was so disruptive to so much of society, it did create a lot of need for at home learning. And things that would be beneficial for kids. So it actually sort of helped our business grow when the pandemic came.

But this echo of the pandemic, in terms of inflation and cost pressures, and the reality that the cost pressures in normal economy inflation are one thing, but the inflationary pressures in direct mail and paper and printing, like significantly worse inflation experienced in direct mail printing paper.

So we have had to shrink the business a bit, driven not by any sort of weakness in the brand and how people respond to our marketing efforts, but in the dramatic costs of customer acquisition through channels that we relied on.

So 2023 for us was a year of talking about what’s our strategy for source transformation. We want to think of ourselves where we create subscriptions, not just as a business model of 12 issues mailed to you a year, that’s one way that we define subscription, but internally we’re talking about subscriptions as a relationship, so it has to be more than those 12 issues.

There has to be benefits in ways that a family would say I’m a Highlights subscriber and I have all of these different things: print, digital, other relationships. Maybe even the way I think about myself as a parent in my relationship to Highlights as a subscriber.

So we’re talking a lot about how do we transform the sources of how we bring people into that relationship with us because a lot of what we’ve done as a magazine industry overtime: direct mail, certain other marketing techniques, it’s just become too expensive.

So we’ve had to shrink some traditional sources, which did cause the business to contract, and we’re working really hard at not only acquiring new magazine subscriptions, but also building those relationships. And we need new sources of how we bring people into that relationship.

And I’ve actually gotten excited about it. I kind of wish we’d started it – we were reliant on things that we knew didn’t have a long term future. I said to my board, this may be one of the best things that’s happened to us because it’s forcing us to rethink how we initiate relationships with customers. And I think what we’re building is a more long term, sustainable better business. And also a business that could be better focused on serving the customer.

Samir Husni: If you and I are having this same conversation at the end of the year, what would you hope to tell me you had accomplished in 2024?

Kent Johnson: Here are some of the things that we’d like to see. We care about making progress in the way that we interact with our customers.. Digital marketing is an area that we have to get better at. So I would want to say to you that we really understood how to talk to our customers better and reach them better. We have a number of different ideas. It’s not just about throwing more money to Google and Meta, it’s about talking to our customers differently.

In some cases for us we want to tell you that we had some really successful partnerships, maybe where we’re bringing different brands to bear, to reach and connect to customers through their knowledge and trust of Highlights, but also maybe their relationships with other brands that they know in their market.

I think I’d want to be telling you about how we’re getting younger customers well. I’d want to be telling you about the idea that we changed the way we communicate with families and facilitate community across families.

Last year we acquired a company called Tinkergarten, which is this really neat outdoor learning experiential child-driven set of ideas and curriculum activities. But there’s a really well demonstrated approach to creating communities across the teachers of these outdoor activities and the parent participants. We have so many submissions to our High Five Magazine, of parents showing with pride, what their child made either in the kitchen or as a craft inspired by something in High Five.

So I’d love to be telling you that we found ways to activate those parents, not only to share with us, but to share with each other and their friends and family. Because sharing that kind of experience and modeling for each other, the activities that come off the page is a piece of building community that for us can be transformative.

And this is a little bit unrelated to the magazine industry, but we just announced as a company that we’re launching a Highlights Early Childhood Curriculum. We’re calling it Preschool With A Purpose, we’ve had a team working on this for a couple of years. We’ve built the educational program for an all day, every day preschool program.

So I’d love to be able to tell you that we have this great launch and now kids are experiencing Highlights all day in preschool every day of the week. And they’re taking home an activity every Friday to do at home and that parents are engaging in that way. And that’s a new experience in those settings that’s bringing families into the Highlights relationship.

So someday I want to tell you that we have this huge early childhood program and by the way, 50% of those kids, their families also subscribe to a magazine. That’s not a source that most adult magazines use, but for us it’s so mission-aligned because we’ve always asked ourselves: where are children, what are they doing; is there a way that we can have a positive impact on what’s happening?

And when we talked to preschool teachers and looked at the content that we had already created and the ideas that we had, we knew that we could make a really excellent, innovative preschool curriculum program. So those are a few of the things that I’d want to tell you.

Samir Husni: It seems everything that you do has a purpose: Fun with a Purpose; you even have a chief purpose officer, which no other media company has. Are you still trying to implement the mission your great-grandparents had for Highlights, only using different ways?

Kent Johnson: We might articulate it a little bit differently, but I think that what drives us and drives me is there is a consistency through life, from the mission and the purpose, when they founded that company back in 1946 to today, we have very aspirational goals. We talk about the vision of our company is that if we’re successful, we believe that we’re helping to create a more optimistic and empathetic world where all children can become their best selves.

So it’s a pretty big goal. Our vision statement talks about when we succeed we hope our actions and our impact through the experiences we create ripple out to benefit all society. And we have a society where we’re so far from a situation where all children can become their best selves.

So it is aspirational, but it is the lens that we use to look at everything. We look at capital investment with spread sheets, but we also look at from the lens of what’s the chance that this makes a sustainable, purpose and mission impact? Yes, we do have a chief purpose officer, but I also try to remind everyone purpose is in everyone’s job here.

It’s what motivates me. It’s what sustains us when you have a tough year. You have inflation, okay, we have to overcome that, because we have a higher purpose in what we’re doing. It’s a  conversation that I have in ever hire I make, but I hope that we have it systematized so that it’s a conversation that we have in every employee decision that we make. Are you interested in our purpose? Because if you’re not, you probably don’t belong at our company.

We try to be very clear that it’s the purpose and vision of the company, it’s not just something to make us feel good. It has to drive decision-making; it has to drive prioritization from the board level to every level in the company.

So yes we are implementing my great-grandparents’ mission as much as possible. I’m a believer in capitalism; I’m bullish on our county; I’m bullish on the future; I’m bullish on the innovation that comes from the human spirit. But I’m completely uninterested in being a company that just wants to make money. I think you have to have a higher purpose and when I see that power motivating our employees, it just confirms that that’s the special sauce that has allowed us to survive and succeed. And it’s what’s going to get us the next 78 years.

Samir Husni: Isn’t there some news that you wanted to share with everyone?

Kent Johnson: It ties a little bit with your question about the role of print because I think that we believe some of these powerful, really important digital companies have made print unnecessary. Think of the names that come to mind when you think of the top three most valuable companies.

But let me show you the cover of the special issue we’ve just gotten. You’ll notice a brand on that cover that is not known for their print footprint. And you see the tagline Be Internet Awesome. And I’ll tell you a little bit of the background.

Last year we got into a conversation with the Google Foundation about their desire to make a difference for children in trying to broker the risks, the challenges, the realities of life on the Internet. We live in a digital world and people need skills. People need to protect themselves, they need to be Internet Awesome, not Internet Naive, not Internet Unsafe.

With the pressures and the realities, we have to start younger setting the basis. And as we were having this conversation, at one point together we said if a parent knows they should be educating their kid about these things, they can Google the information. But if you want to make an impact, how would you motivate children and families, how would you reach children and families who are not actively searching for what they need to learn about being safe on the Internet?

Children don’t want to sign up for boring or didactic and what Highlights believes it has mastered in Fun with a Purpose is how to have a kid love it, but take value in learning out of it. So in our conversation with Google we said there’s a lot of understanding in what we should be teaching kids, let’s work together and create something that will draw them into the content.

And out of that came the idea let’s build a full issue, same size, 44 pages; let’s build a special issue of Highlights Magazine; we’ll cobrand it, a special supplement issue, Highlights and Google together. All Google’s knowledge of what curriculum, ideas; Highlight’s special sauce about kids. And so we built the special issue to help bring kids and families into these ideas and move them along.

We also said let’s not just do kids, we’re going to build microsites for parents to help them understand and support, resources for teachers if they want to use it in schools. So we built a lot of that and scaffolding so that people can use this content to start conversations and create experiences that leaves kids safer and more mature and more understanding of the Internet.

And the cool thing is because Google is serious about the impact they want to have on kids in the U.S. and globally, in partnership with them we’re going to be able to send a free copy of this magazine to all 850,000 of our Highlights subscribers as an extra bonus for their subscription relationship with us. And we know that there are many, many kids who don’t subscribe.

So we worked closely with Google and with our business development team. We’re going to distribute another half million copies of this magazine through the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, through Save The Children, through Reading Is Fundamental; also through Blue Star Families to reach military families. So we built the distribution network to get these resources to kids across a whole spectrum of socioeconomic diversity and geography, all of that.

And I just really admire Google’s commitment for that reach and it’s been great to partner with them. But in our first conversation it was, do we believe it’s important to give kids experiences to help them be safer and more thoughtful? Does this fit? And actually, one of my calls after the first conversation was to Chris Cully, our chief purpose officer, and it was, this idea came up, how does this fit in your mind with our purpose?

Samir Husni: You’re the only CEO of a media company that I’ve spoken to lately who is building  a partnership with Google and not having them as a nightmare. (Laughs) When I ask others what keeps them up at night, many respond Google. But it’s good to hear that someone with a purpose is building a partnership with them.

Kent Johnson: I don’t think of myself as being in any particular industry We try to think as big as possible about what partners might care about the same things that we do. One of the reasons we work with Save the Children and have decided to deliberately develop a long term relationship with them is because their footprint and the ability to serve people around the world is proven. They have people on the ground. So when things are going on at the border and we want to send stuff there, we can. We’re able to reach kids in the Ukraine. This was a bit more digital, but we granted some rights to another partner to translate a bunch of our content into Ukrainian.

So Highlights has to be really clear about what we’re good at and then find partners and be really clear about what they’re good at. And I think that’s what Google saw in Highlights and for them, when we were in all of these conversations, they said yes, we really think print could be part of our way of achieving what we want to achieve. Who else besides Highlights would we work with for this kind of thing.

I always wondered how Highlights and Google could have a more positive impact together. Maybe that’s different than the others. (Laughs) We are a content company; we are a publisher, but we’re a kid company. So we have to think about things through that lens.

Samir Husni: You said the first call that you made was to your chief purpose officer?

Kent Johnson: Yes, I called Chris and said hey, here’s this idea we just talked about, how does that fit? She said oh my, we’ve thought so many times, how could we be more helpful to kids. There’s all this fake information; there’s passwords; there’s bullying. She said we try to do some of that in the magazine, but you might be able to do a whole 32 pages of it; we love it.

I think a good partnership like this one, it wasn’t like we had to fret over it. We said if that’s really the goal, to help kids be safer, to be kinder, we’re all in.

We also have a curriculum company and I called the head of it and asked, what about this? Is there a need for this in schools? Would you want to be a part of making a positive impact? We do foundational skills in literacy at our curriculum: math, spelling, vocabulary. And her answer was of course. Digital literacy is a foundational skill. We’re not building curriculum there; we’re not really doing that, but that fits why we exist. In school, we would want kids to get all the basic building blocks of literacy that allowed them to be safe and successful and grow and learn in a healthy fashion.

So for us, the goals were fit with that purpose. And that was the lens. Once that all worked out, then it was time to figure out the details. And I’m probably overestimating how much conversation it took to evolve; I’m certainly not giving credit to an editorial team who were already building all their products for our company, then having to throw another full issue  of brand new content in and say that has to get done as well. We’re really fortunate to have incredible teams. And the Google team was incredible, in terms of feedback and underlying content and partnership.

So there’s a lot of credit to go around and it’s a little more complicated than I said. But we’re going to reach 1.5 million kids at least with content that I believe in my heart and soul is going to make a difference with how they interact with part of their everyday life. So it’s exciting.

Samir Husni: Is Chris Cully the longest serving editor at Highlights? She’s 31 years there now?

Kent Johnson: I’m trying to think. There’s not been a lot of editors at Highlights. Let’s see, my great-grandfather started as editor in 1946 and he died in 1971. So I believe there’s a very good chance that Chris is the longest.  

No matter how long she has served, there is no doubt that her passionate advocacy for children has helped shape Highlights during her tenure, and it’s why she was perfect to step into the role of Chief Purpose Office.

Samir Husni: Are the children in the country better off today than they were five years ago?

Kent Johnson: My opinion is no, they’re not. I wish it weren’t true. I think about income disparity, the negative impacts on mental health and education of the pandemic. Since 2019 to now, we see significant increases in mental health issues, significant challenges around educational issues and school attendance.

We put into place an incredible child tax credit that pulled so many kids out of poverty. And we have not been able to reinstate that and the evidence is that if you can pull kids out of poverty, you enhance their brain development, you enhance their health and nutrition, and you’re helping them be their best selves so that they can contribute over long, successful lives and careers.

Unfortunately, I don’t feel kids are better off today than five years ago and I’m a tireless advocate and a believer that we should invest more in our children because it’s investing in our country’s future and it’s investing in what I believe is our most important asset, our children. And that’s a foundational belief for Highlights for Children.

Samir Husni: My typical last question; what keeps you up at night?

Kent Johnson: Everything. (Laughs) The pace of change; wanting to have as much success as possible launching preschool curriculum; addressing the cost structures around digital marketing and print production and distribution. I will always talk about purpose and mission, but the economic challenges for the magazine industry, for print, for the U.S. economy, for distribution; the economic challenges are real for us and everyone else in the industry.

It’s a hard, hard journey to overcome the structural challenges for magazines and for print in this economy. So I’m kept up just thinking about how do we keep this small, but incredible team that we’ve assembled, how do we keep them emotionally, mentally healthy and energized because we have so many challenges and opportunities to tackle.

More and more since the pandemic, I’m up at night thinking how do we keep our people working at their best? How do we create teams that can really perform and execute when the world out there is so messy and there are so many issues and so much to do.

Samir Husni: Thank you.  

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