I just read an article in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune about the New Moon magazine seeking investors so that it can move its operation entirely online, and I'm embarrassed to say that I've never heard of New Moon even though it has 20,000 subscribers and is all about producing media for young girls that doesn't make them feel like they should be ultra-thin, sexy consumers. Much of the content is reader-produced and they don't accept any advertising, and from what I saw on their Web site, it looks like a fantastic idea. Check out this sample copy. I love that they have an article on Suffrage as well as a piece that debunks the myth about chewing gum being stuck in your stomach for a seven-year digestive process if you swallow it. It sounds like the proposed online version will include even more user-generated content, and there will be a teen and tween-geared component.
Are there any subscribers out there? I'd like to hear more about this. I'd also be interested in whether people are going to be up for paying for their subscriptions online (the Strib article says something about a $19.95 annual fee for the Orb28 and New Moon Club content for the older girls). I suspect there's a good research study in here -- just what I've been looking for!
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Hello,
I saw your blog post and wanted to give you and your readers more information on New Moon Girls magazine and NewMoonGirls.com! Most of this information comes from our press release about the new online community for girls.
New Moon Girl Media, publishers since 1992 of the international, bi-monthly New Moon Girls magazine will launch of NewMoonGirls.com on September 1, 2008 a Web Community for girls ages 8 – 12. New Moon Girl Media has partnered with Silicon Valley technology accelerator MonVia Inc. to launch the first in a family of secure Web Communities for young girls and tweens to develop their full potential through self-discovery, creativity, and community.
NewMoonGirls.com will be a companion to the magazine, featuring sixteen years of archived New Moon Girls articles written and edited by and for girls. Girls will discover thousands of articles with information helpful for their full development. High-quality features by award winning writers such as Ani DeFranco and Jane Godall, along with articles and letters submitted by girls from around the world address issues such as body image, friendship, gender inequity, school, changing emotions, world views, and family relationships.
NewMoonGirls.com will not accept any advertising, adhering to the same values of the magazine by providing a marketing-free space for children. The website will charge an annual membership fee of $19.95 a year. Subscription to New Moon Girls magazine is $34.95 per year. A package of magazine plus website membership will be available for $44.95. A special 30 day free trial offer on NewMoonGirls.com will be made available to all New Moon Girls magazine subscribers between September 1 and November 30, 2008.
NewMoonGirls.com will allow girls to develop community through moderated online chats about specific topics important to girls. There will be sticker sharing, polls and quizzes, and an “Ask A Girl” advice area where girls help each other with problems ranging from how to find their talent, feelings about boys, and trouble with friends. The popular “Dear Luna” column from the magazine reappears online as a place where girls can share their opinions about everything with other girls and Luna, the spirit of New Moon a smart, caring, supportive yet faceless figure, provides feedback and support.
New Moon Girls online will expand the reach of the bi-monthly magazine, giving more girls a creative outlet in public areas where they can share their writing, music, poetry, videos, and artwork with other girls. The website will also allow each member her own private room where she will feel safe to explore her individual expressions and feelings.
Parents, caregivers, and any adult working with girls will appreciate the lengths New Moon Girls has gone to in challenging the typical notion of a web site for girls. In addition to being 100% advertising-free like the magazine, NewMoonGirls.com has retained an panel of industry experts as advisors on girls issues, provides staff and adult moderation at all levels of communication between girls on the website, has compiled an extensive resource guide for girls on sensitive topics, and COPPA compliant meeting online safety standards for children.
New Moon magazine recently received the 2008 Parents' Choice Gold Award for children’s magazine and has garnered nine Parent’s Choice Foundation Awards, five Educational Press Association of America Design and Editorial Awards, a National Association for Multicultural Education award, a Folio Award and the Association of Educational Publishers prestigious Golden Lamp Award in 2006.
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About New Moon Girl Media
New Moon Girl Media is the original girl-centered media organization by and for girls ages 8 - 15. Girl editors, writers, filmmakers and artists from around the world are in charge of all our content, working with adults through our pioneering Share the Power method.
Please contact me at kathleenk@newmoongirlmedia.com or call 612.822.5369. New Moon Girl’s editors can serve as trusted resources and spokepeople for any stories involving girls issues.
Kathleen Kvern
New Moon Girl Media
Chief Marketing Officer
Thanks, Kathleen! I might give you a call. Duluth isn't so far from here, and I'd love to see New Moon is action at some point. What a great idea and inspiring organization.
Hi, Shayla - we've never met, but I'm a grad student in American Studies at the U. (I found your blog via Jezebel, which is talking about your flowtv piece; very exciting!)
Anyway, I was a subscriber to New Moon in the early '90s, and I remember really liking it except that it was a bit on the woo-woo side and, of course, did not discuss the mass culture production I so dearly love(d). I would have been about to age out of their target audience, so that may be part of it - I seem to remember wishing I'd found it earlier! I remember they printed excerpts from longer works of fiction and those as well as their other pieces seemed to be really conscious about presenting a lot of racial, ethnic, and income diversity without, I think (although again, it's been awhile) being too tokenizing about it.
Maybe you could trace a direct line between my New Moons and my current subscription to Bitch! Feminist nonprofit media ftw!
Hey Liz! Not sure if you will check this, but email my school account sometime if you want. We should grab coffee on campus -- I would love to hear about your work (and one of my grad students is actually working on a topic fairly similar to what you were talking about, by the way).
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