Laura Adnitt on the development – and success – of Story House Egmont’s Disney Stitch magazine

Laura, we spoke to you for Brands Untapped in July 2024. They say a year is a long time in politics… How about publishing? What have the last 12 months been like for Story House Egmont?
A lot can happen in a year! 2025 has been very busy so far, with January 1st heralding the commencement of Story House Egmont acting as the sole publishing partner for Disney franchise magazines in the UK, under license from The Walt Disney Company. In the last eight months there have been re-launches of three established Disney titles, immediately improving their performance on the newsstand – and July saw the launch of a brand-new monthly title, with Disney Stitch magazine hitting shelves.

On that, can you tell us more about the Disney Stitch magazine and how you work with Disney to make the most of their portfolio?
Early sales indications show that Disney Stitch magazine is selling on a par to some of the biggest revenue titles in the market. We expect to see a bit of a shuffle in the rankings charts as a result!

Each issue features an exciting comic story starring Stitch and his ‘ohana (family), alongside a vibrant mix of content that focuses on humour and friendship. Aimed primarily at girls aged seven to 11, the magazine is bursting with fun that encourages creativity and problem-solving, ensuring plenty of laughter.

The entire publishing team, in close collaboration with the team at The Walt Disney Company, have done an incredible job of bringing the mischief and mayhem of Stitch to the page. We are certain this will be another evergreen title, alongside the likes of Disney Princess, which Story House Egmont have been publishing for over 27 years!

The Disney magazine portfolio now consists of six market-leading titles under Story House Egmont’s care. And that’s not all, we have exciting plans for something very special to hit the magazine category at the end of the year… No spoilers here, so you’ll have to watch this space!

Nicely teased! Focusing on this new title, is there a specific formula for launching a new magazine into the marketplace? How do you persuade retail buyers to support a new title these days?
The success of the Stitch brand, even without the movie, was very clear. Consumer product sales were flying and a magazine launch for summer was perfect timing – that crest of a wave point. Most hard-ranged retailers operate a one-in-one-out policy for magazines, so they must be convinced that this new addition to the range is going to sell well, to warrant a premium listing.

Story House Egmont have a strong track record with market-leading brands, and we try not to over promise. This means when we launch something new, we have the faith of the buyers. In this instance though, the undeniable success of the Stitch brand did a lot of the convincing for us!

“We have exciting plans for something very special to hit the magazine category at the end of the year…”

Given Egmont Storyhouse’s longevity in the marketplace, how do you ensure that you challenge yourselves creatively, editorially and format-wise?
Our continued success comes from a solid publishing strategy which focuses on delivering premium product executions with age-appropriate and engaging content. Combining this with a spotlight on evergreen characters, key brand-activity and celebrations – and evolving to ensure we are always appealing to the modern consumer.

There’s a lot more to it than that, of course, but they are certainly the main headlines. And it’s clear this is working. Based on YTD closed market data, Story House Egmont are the number one kids’ magazine publisher in the UK market, showing growth of 33% YoY. From our portfolio of 16 titles, we have four titles in the top five, six in the top 10, and 10 of our titles are in the top 20 national rankings.

Thinking about brands and characters in the marketplace, how do you keep a handle on new opportunities?
Trend spotting is very important to our business – trends can come from so many areas and become the biggest thing, seemingly overnight. We run trends workshops, we buy-in trend analysis and we do our own trend analysis, too.

Many of our staff are around children a lot – be it their own, or family members or just through the initiatives we set-up via work. Being around children, listening to them and observing what they do and how they interact with products and brands is crucial for our NPD and EPD process. We don’t believe our products would be as innovative or engaging without this focus on understanding our consumers.

There has been a lot of focus on fans and fandom in licensing recently. How do Storyhouse Egmont approach the fan community?
We talk to kids in a variety of ways – there’s the eternally popular reader survey, of course! These are great and really keep us in touch with our readers. We also visit schools and run magazine creation workshops in class – which the kids and teachers love! We also have kids into our office for research days a few times a year too. This is always loads of fun for everyone and keeps us aware of what’s hot and what’s not. There’s no-one more honest than a nine-year-old girl reviewing your content ideas for the latest issue of Go Girl magazine!

Ha! And thinking about design, are there specific design trends and developments in publishing that you have had to respond to?
We look to other categories and wider market trends to inspire our design approach – from the colours we use, to the packaging and the brands we focus on for our Own Brand publishing. We take inspiration from other categories such as health & beauty, stationery, arts & crafts and toys. We also get inspiration from halo retailers like Primark, Miniso and Pop Mart, to name just a few.

With BLE on the horizon how do you make the most of your time at the show? What function does BLE perform for Storyhouse Egmont?
BLE is very relevant for us. It’s where we meet with our existing partners and also where we establish new relationships. We attend the showcases and its very useful for getting a feeling of what’s next on the horizon – what are the key themes and trends.

It’s always a packed schedule and colleagues from across our regions join – so expect a Story House Egmont tribe from Nordics, GSA & CEE to be in attendance, as well as our London based team. We’ll see you there!

Absolutely. Thanks again Laura!