The editors of Hoot Owl, a biweekly newspaper in Arlington, Texas, are upset, witness the following item:
“Recently, a group of adults in Boston started a magazine called Kids. It is a magazine using kids as editors. Readers of The Hoot Owl know that we came out with our first issue on August 28th of 1970 with kids as our editors. Kids published their first issue on November 30th. The point is, Kids is not an original idea. The motto of Kids magazine is ‘By children for each other.’ On the first issue of The Hoot Owl we introduced the motto on the front page . . . ‘By kids, for kids, about kids.’ “
There really is no dispute: both publications are original. Hoot Owl appears to be a bit jealous-because it has been struggling for five hard months with next to no recognition, while Kids gained national attention in only one month. Its first guest editors, Candace Lowe, 12, and Marc Alonso, 10, have already appeared on the David Frost Show.
Cheap Arithmetic. Kids deserves its kudos. The first issue of the monthly literary magazine, printed on good quality paper with plenty of color illustrations, was fresh, funny and full of juvenile reflections of an adult world. “I think this generation is different,” Alonso said, “because for the first time we know that things are bad and that the world could blow up the next second. And because we know this, we younger kids will try harder, because if we don’t, we just won’t have any more world.” Issue No. 2, now at the printer’s, contains a poem by Mary Mattos, 12, and Maryann Micchelli, 11, who un-cynically calculate the price of schooling and the value of happiness:
We’re sitting on 2¢chairs
And doing cheap Arithmetic problems
And having a social studies test that
Isn’t worth half a penny
We’re using 25¢ Science hooks
And 50¢ Spelling books . . .
The 25¢, school bell rings
And whether you have 1¢ or 100
dollars You are $100,000,000 happy.
So far, Kids (50¢ a copy) is running decidedly in the red. Without advertising, the first edition of 60,000 copies cost $13,000 and left its adult founders in debt. But Jim Robinson, 34, a former fifth-grade teacher, and Jenette Kahn, 23, a freelance art critic, are optimistic. Recently Kahn noted, “The orders are coming at a rate of 50 a day. If that keeps up for a few months, we might get out of the financial bind.”
Brain Rust. In a refreshingly novel way, Hoot Owl follows standard newspaper style. It has movie, TV and record reviews; it prints a clever pictorial TV log for those who cannot read time; it includes society, travel and sports columns. The tabloid was started by Dane Edwards, 34, owner of a small professional speakers’ bureau, to help some neighborhood children. It now operates with a staff of eight (unpaid except for soda pop and snack expenses), a waiting list of 23 and a mandatory retirement age of 16. Edwards and his wife Janie keep their editing and layout help to a minimum. The strength of the paper is derived from Article Four of the Hoot Owl rules: “When writing: If it’s wrong, say so. When it’s right, congratulate. When no one cares, change things. Don’t follow examples, be one.” The area around Arlington (pop. 88,000) shows the results:
— Because of a ceaseless campaign by Cinema Critic Dennis Hatfield, 8, Arlington theater owners have increased their bookings of G-rated films by 30% in the past five months. Hatfield also devised his own rating system: “GG, an authentic G movie; GR, objectionable aspects; GX, watch out, kids, they’re putting us on—i.e. Airport.” Theaters have adopted these ratings in their ads. Recently Hatfield was forced to write a TV column because “I haven’t seen a movie around worth writing about.” Then he ruefully noted, “You can rust your brain with all of the garbage they put on the tube. Some people think there’s enough kid shows around. They’re not kids.”
— A historic cabin, slated to be razed, was saved by Hoot Owl after two daily papers failed in their attempts to raise funds to have it moved. A Hoot Owl staffer phoned the owner of a house-moving firm and got him to do the $4,400 job free.
> Sports Editor Tommy O’Hare, 10, embarrassed the Arlington Optimist Club into keeping its promise that the Pee-wee League’s championship football game be played at the University of Texas stadium instead of the usual city park.
Hoot Owl has carried unrelenting independence into advertising policies. In Naderesque form, Roving Editor Lonnie Ginn, 12, attacked the cereal industry for its nutritional shortcomings. When Kellogg’s, as a prospective advertiser, asked for a copy of the paper, Edwards refused. “We would not accept their ads until they improved their products,” he says.
Financially Hoot Owl is doing about as well as Kids. Word-of-mouth popularity has helped boost circulation to 15,000. But at $800 per printing, Edwards admits that “it’s costing us more money to fulfill our circulation than we bring in.” One problem is that Edwards and his wife run Hoot Owl as “a hobby” and constantly trade out ad space in return for benefits for the kids. They do not go out of their way to solicit for subscriptions or advertisers. “I guess we could have hired a high-pressure ad salesman and made a bundle by now,” he says. “But then, I’m afraid we would lose sight of why we started Hoot Owl—to help kids and teach them to depend on people, not money. Even if we go down, we will have taught the kids to stand behind their principles.”
Sports Editor O’Hare, one of the most candid kids on Hoot Owl’s staff, is the kind of guy Edwards has in mind. “I’m not the best sportswriter in the area,” he says, “but I’m the best predictor of any I know. Some weeks I hit 80% of the games I pick. I’ve learned enough about sportswriting to know that I don’t want to be one. I want to be a baseball player.”
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