Celebrating 1 million copies of The Story Corner magazine

One million copies and counting! We’re so excited to announce this huge milestone for The Story Corner magazine. 

With one in five children not owning a single book of their own at home, The Story Corner magazine is something children can keep for themselves and take home. 

The magazine is packed full of stories and activities to spark the joy of reading among children and to prevent learning loss outside of school. Since launching in 2020, we’ve delivered a million copies of our magazine to children through schools and community settings like food banks, hospitals and refuges. 

To mark this achievement, we explored the history of the magazine with our Programme Development Officer, Karen who plays a vital role in sourcing the authors, stories and activities in each issue. 

To celebrate this milestone further, author Sathnam Sanghera visited Fleet Primary School to deliver the millionth copy in person.

The origins of The Story Corner magazine

The Story Corner was launched in 2020 to make reading accessible and enjoyable for every child. The Bookmark team recognised the need for high-quality reading materials at home, as the pandemic disrupted access to books for many children. 

Since then, we’ve come a long way. We’ve worked with many authors and illustrators to publish 11 issues and one special edition, all based on different themes – from adventure to space. The magazine has quickly become a beloved resource, captivating young readers with each new edition. 

Selecting a favourite issue is no easy task, as Karen admits. She said: ​“that is such a difficult question as it is an ongoing theme that whichever issue we are currently working on becomes our favourite!’

However, she also mentioned that some issues do stand out, with issue eight being especially meaningful as it celebrated The Story Corner​’s fifth anniversary. Meanwhile, issue ten, which had a graphic novel theme, generated the ​“most engagement with our drawing competition, with over 250 entries!”.  

The journey to one million copies

Behind the scenes the magazine’s success lies in a strategic effort to expand its reach and improve it’s content. Since Karen began leading the magazine from issue four, she’s worked tirelessly to ensure the content is captivating and accessible for readers. 

A year’s subscription is now included in several targeted programmes, such as Your Story Corner Programme, School Network Programme and Literacy Partner Programmes, which aim to reach children in the country’s most disadvantaged areas where children often lack books of their own at home. 

The magazine’s reach has also grown through community outreach with important support networks such as foodbanks, refuges, libraries, community centres, family support groups, Warm Welcome, The Salvation Army and children’s hospitals being regular recipients of issues. 

We have also formed important partnerships with the four multi-banks across the country as well as with other brilliant charities who support vulnerable children and families, including Home Start, Kids Out, Gingerbread, Rainbow Trust and The Children’s Book Project. 

Another cornerstone of success has been the generosity of authors, illustrators and publishers who contribute free content. Karen said, ​“I think the success is down to the generous donations of content. Being a charity, we rely on free content, so either using material created and licensed under Creative Commons, or through the generous donations from authors, illustrators and publishers. Cultivating these relationships has meant that we could include very current and popular content that the children will identify and want to read. They are also very generous with donations to our prize bundle for the drawing competition we have in every issue.’ 

Testimonials

The impact of The Story Corner is evident in the glowing feedback it receives. 

“They are fantastic- I am so impressed by the content and quality!” – Library 

“This issue has gone down really well with our clients, and with the summer holidays its been a useful extra to give out to entertain the children!” – Foodbank 

“It is a brilliant book for children with a lot of information and fun activities, and is loved by my daughter very much.” – Parent 

Reflections from contributors

In Summer 2022, Ian Brown, author of Albert and the Tortoise, contributed a heartfelt foreword to The Story Corner magazine, emphasising ​‘the power of teamwork and working together to help others.’ 

Reflecting on the experience, Ian shared, ​‘It was a privilege to contribute, and the real Albert, who inspires all the Albert books, was also very proud. He was especially keen to check out the magazine and to pose with it. Congratulations to The Story Corner on this landmark achievement.’

Hear more from Ian here.

The sentiment was echoed by Daisy from First News, another valued contributor to the magazine. She expressed her enthusiasm, saying, ​‘First News is so glad to be a part of The Story Corner – it is such a wonderful idea, and we feel honoured to contribute articles towards the magazine. For us, the process has been super simple and easy! We just provided some content (which we already had), and you and the team have turned it into the wonderful magazine – thank you for letting us be a part of it.’

Delivering the millionth copy

We were joined by author, Sathnam Sanghera, to deliver the millionth copy of The Story Corner to one of our partner schools in London: Fleet Primary. 

The pupils excitedly unboxed the magazines and were eager to explore the colourful pages filled with fun activities and stories to spark their imagination. They were particularly thrilled to discover the drawing competition, which offered a chance to showcase their artistic talents. Knowing they could bring the magazine home to enjoy over the Christmas holidays made the experience even more magical.

Future of The Story Corner Magazine

As we celebrate this achievement, our sights are set on achieving our goal of delivering another two million copies by 2027. 

Plans include more incredible stories, engaging activities and exciting competitions. We are committed to collaborating with more talented authors and publishers to ensure the best content reaches young readers, continuing to bring the magic of reading to children everywhere.