Our blog is 1-year-old today. Happy birthday blog! When we started this blog last July we weren’t exactly sure where it would lead. We knew we wanted to share news, insights, and stories (lots of stories!) from our stable of award-winning children’s magazines with you, but the format, content, and value of the blog was still very nebulous and theoretical. We weren’t sure where any of the posts would lead or if anyone would even read what we wrote.
Well, one year later, we are happy to say our blog has become a full-fledged member of our corporate family. It has friends (you!), contributors whose blogs we look forward to reading each month (looking at you Charles Ghigna, our resident poet), and has made more than 200 stories from our magazines available to our readers free of charge.
But just as a 1-year-old child still has a lot of growing and changing to do, this blog is still a work in progress. We like to think of this first year as an experiment where we were trying out what worked and what didn’t and noticing what our audience responded to and what you guys passed over for something more compelling. We learned a lot. For example, we know our readers like to see stories that help them explain science phenomena to their kids such as 5 Mars Facts That Will Wow Your Kids (our most popular blog ever!). And we know that you are thinking a lot about literacy and how you can help your kids improve their reading skills, as evidenced by a frequently read post by our friends at Reading Rainbow, “Parents: Get Caught Reading and Improve Your Child’s Literacy.” Some of our most popular blogs shared stories on a particular parenting topic that was relevant to our young readers (“Helping Kids Face their Fears”) and some discussed the history of our magazines and the important place they hold in the world of children’s literature (“Cricket’s Legacy of Celebrating Diversity”).
We never did come up with an official name for the Cricket Media blog (so we’ll just keep affectionately calling it “our blog”) but we have enjoyed developing it over the past year. As we move forward, look for changes to our design, more contributors on topics that we know you, our readers, are interested in, and more in-depth coverage of the authors, illustrators, and editors who have made our magazines such an integral part of the children’s media landscape for the past 40+ years.
We hope you’ve enjoyed the content we are sending your way. Thank you for reading and sharing and being part of our conversation. We always welcome comments and suggestions so if you see something you like (or don’t like), let us know. We look forward to another year of information, insight, and, of course sharing stories, lots of wonderful stories, with you.
