"KidsView," a four-page monthly insert in the Seventh-day Adventist Church's Adventist Review weekly magazine, has received "overwhelmingly positive" feedback, but isn't reaching as many kids as hoped, say editors.
“KidsView,” a four-page monthly insert in the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s Adventist Review weekly magazine, has received “overwhelmingly positive” feedback, but isn’t reaching as many kids as hoped, say editors.
While every Seventh-day Adventist on record in North America receives a monthly, regional edition of the Review, three other weekly editions have been subscribed to mainly by an older demographic. Many of them write in saying, “I’m a kid at heart. I love KidsView.”
“We’re not the official magazine of the church, but the general church magazine…. Part of our mission is to bring the church together,” says Bonita Shields, Adventist Review assistant editor and editorial coordinator for KidsView. “We want to let kids know they are part of the church—now. If we keep waiting for them to get ‘old enough,’ they’ll never belong.”
The “AnchorPoints” edition of the Adventist Review—in which KidsView appears—focuses on Adventist heritage with more doctrinal and foundational issues. Shields says KidsView was added to that edition hoping to create a “family issue” in addition to increasing subscriptions.
Since its inaugural issue in August 2002, KidsView has won two awards for excellence from the Associated Church Press. “Receiving these awards was very validating,” says Kimberly Luste Maran, Adventist Review assistant editor and content editor for KidsView. “They realize we have great content.”
The level of writing is for ages 8 to 12. Many of the features are actually written by kids and there are several kid reporters around the globe.
“We wanted as much kid participation as possible,” says Shields. “It’s not just adults writing for kids.” The advisory board is key to the whole project, she says. Nine kids of different ages, genders, and cultures meet every other month with KidsView editors.
One child interviewed a man who works in the television industry which led to a section on careers. There are recipes from kids, stories about summer camp, jobs kids have, and original poems. Editors rewrite some existing Adventist Review stories, making them shorter and written in kid language.
“We never set out to compete with other church publications,” says Maran. “Content is tied to the Adventist Review…. It’s intentionally linked.”
“It’s great that [KidsView] seems to have established itself in people’s minds so quickly,” Maran says.
The idea of KidsView had been germinating in the minds of editors for several years. A mom in New England suggested to chief editor Bill Johnsson that the Review should do something to reach kids.
The Adventist Review began as The Present Truth in 1848 by church co-founder James White, at the suggestion of his wife, Ellen. The Review is edited at the Adventist Church world headquarters in Silver Spring, and is published at the Review and Herald Publishing Association some 65 miles away in Hagerstown, Maryland.
KidsView is self funded with ads and donations to defer printing costs.
